Developers, makers and hobbyists are searching for a
single board mini PC similar to the Raspberry Pi might be interested in the new
NanoPi M4 mini PC which has been unveiled this week with prices starting from
$65. Equipped with a more powerful processor than the Raspberry Pi the NanoPi
M4 is powered by a Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor equipped with two ARM
Cortex-A72 CPU cores supported by four Cortex-A53 cores and Mali-T864 graphics
together with up to 4GB of RAM.
The CPU used in the mini PC is basically the same
chip used in Chromebooks such as the the Samsung Chromebook Plus (2017) and
Acer Chromebook Tab 10 (2018), explains Brad Linder from the Liliputing
website. Depending on your budget and required performance two mini PC systems
are available offering 2GB or 4GB of RAM priced at US$ 65 and US$ 95 respectively.
The NanoPi M4 mini PC supports a number of different operating systems
including Android 7.1.2, Lubuntu 16.04 32-bit, or FriendlyCore 18.04 or
FriendlyDesktop 18.04 64-bit operating systems based on Ubuntu.
Both mini PC systems features DDR3-1866 memory and
has a microSD card reader, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1,
HDMI, and 3.5mm audio ports, together with 4 x USB 3.0 Type-A ports and a USB
2.0 Type-C port. 40-pin GPIO header, a second 24-pin GPIO header, a 4-lane
MIPI-DSI output for an optional camera module, and a socket for connecting an
optional eMMC module. FriendlyELEC also offers separate accessories taking the
form of a 8GB eMMC module, 2MP or 13.2MP cameras, a heat sink, or various
cables and adapters.
