Orange Pi Development Boards Are Raspberry Pi “Clones” based on Allwinner A20 and A31s

After Raspberry Pi, Waxberry Pi, and Banana Pi boards, here come another fruit-named board with Orange Pi. There are actually three models, with Orange Pi and Orange Pi mini based on Allwinner A20, and Orange Pi Plus powered by a quad core Allwinner A31s processor.

Orange_Pi_Board
Orange Pi Board Description

I’ve drawn a comparison table with the specifications for the three models. Please note that Orange Pi Plus full specifications have not been released yet, so I don’t have all details.

Orange Pi Mini Orange Pi Orange Pi Plus
SoC Allwinner A20 dual core Cortex A7 processor up to 1GHz with Mali-400 MP2 GPU Allwinner A31s quad core Cortex A7 processor with PowerVR SGX544MP2 GPU
System Memory 1 GB DDR3
Storage 2x micro SD slot + SATA NAND Flash + micro SD slot + SATA TBD
Video Output HDMI, AV, and DSI I/F HDMI, AV, VGA, and DSI I/F HDMI, AV, and DSI I/F
Audio I/O HDMI, AV, and MIC HDMI, AV, and MIC HDMI and AV
Connectivity Gigabit Ethernet (RTL8211E/D) + Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n + optional Bluetooth Ethernet + 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi
Camera Parallel 8-bit I/F CSI connector CSI connector
USB 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB OTG 4x USB 2.0 ports, 1x micro USB OTG
Expansion 40-pin header 26-pin “R-Pi” header
18-pin extended interface
Misc Rest, power, and u-boot buttons
Power, Ethernet, and user LEDS
IR receiver
Rest, power, and u-boot buttons
Power, Ethernet, and user LEDS
IR receiver, RTC battery interface
Rest, power, and u-boot buttons
Power, Ethernet, and user LEDS
IR receiver
Power * 5V/2A via DC jack* 5V via micro USB OTG port * 5V/2A via DC jack
* 5V via micro USB OTG port
* Li-Po Battery
* 5V/2A via DC jack
* 5V via micro USB OTG port
Dimensions 94 x 86 mm 112 x 60 mm N/A
Weight 45 grams 60 grams N/A
Price + Shipping $42.11 $51.31 $76.37
Orange Pi Plus Board
Orange Pi Plus Board

Orange Pi boards appear to be software compatible with Banana Pi, and Banana Pi M2 boards, with support for Android 4.4, Debian, Ubuntu, Raspbian, and Scratch, and Orange Pi website is a close copy of lemaker.org, one of the companies promoting the Banana brand. They even have the same “Apply for Orange Pi“, where you can apply for a free board if you have a project, or want to help with Orange Pi “community”.

Orange Pi boards can be purchased for $42 to $76 including shipping on Shenzhen Xunlong Software Aliexpress store, which also includes cheap accessories such as a $5.90 camera.

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39 Comments
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onebir
onebir
9 years ago

@ade Nice idea, but looks like half the PCB is empty? Wonder why they made it twice as large as necessary..?

mm
mm
9 years ago

@onebir
look closely, its not empty, its a space for 2.5 inch hdd

steven
9 years ago

Banana Pi was designed by xunlong software. We designed this product from the ODM to own brand.

FransM
FransM
9 years ago

much friendlier shipping cost than for banana pi 🙂
@Steven: can you add shipping to the Netherlands ?

steven
9 years ago

Orange Pi 2 is H3 Quad core board with 4k video codec. Orange pi 2 Will soon release.

steven
9 years ago

@FransM
You are the first one to Netherlands customers, we can free for you.

rasz_pl
rasz_pl
9 years ago

waste of time and money, they cant even run a website and you want to buy hardware from them?

this is their website for documentation:
http://www.orangepi.org/Docs/mainpage.html

EVERY SINGLE link is broken, fake or non existent

steven
9 years ago

Orange pi should not be called cloning. We have completely different hardware design.
Most of the software system is not the same. Please help modify inappropriate title, thank you.

steven
9 years ago

@rasz_pl Our website is still improving, you said these deficiencies is improving, thank you for pointing out these deficiencies.

manny
manny
9 years ago

So is HW acceleration supported in Linux like the $35 Odroid from hardkernel?

Al
Al
9 years ago

@CNX So when are you going to do a comparison/board shoot out for us ?

So more expensive than odroid c and lower performance, more like a cubieboard 2/cubietruck but less io.

Mike
Mike
9 years ago

@Al You said what I was thinking – the Odroid-C1 would appear to be a better board at a much better price than any of these. Not that I’ve had personal experience with either, just going by the specs and the published prices.

steven
9 years ago

@manny orange pi is HW acceleration supported in Linux

steven
9 years ago

@Sander firmware downloaded is coming soon.

FransM
FransM
9 years ago

When comparing with Banana Pi it seems this one is a bit better equipped (it has wifi). Then again a banana can also be ordered for 41.60. See http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-shipping-Banana-pi-fully-compatible-with-Raspberry-Pi-cubieboard-with-Gigabit-ethernet-port-SATA-Socket/1839648169.html?s=p And banana is supported directly by Fedora 21: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Architectures/ARM/F21/Installation Odroid C1 is also nice but as cnxsoft says: much more expensive shipping. Also it lacks a sata port (it would make a nice box ) Then again a banana M2 can be found for $ 59 on aliexpress whereas the A31 orange is $ 76. @Steven: What is the nand flash size of the orange pi? And what does bluetooth optional… Read more »

mongrol
mongrol
9 years ago

Website lists Raspbian as a supported OS. I doubt this is true since Raspbian is compiled for armv6 on the original Pi.

FransM
FransM
9 years ago

@mongrol
You probably need to run a different kernel, but otherwise there should not be too much issues.
An armv7 can run armv6 code perfectly well.

rasz_pl
rasz_pl
9 years ago

Sander yes, and links you found are a proof this is a typical chinese RIPOFF Lubuntu_For_BananaPi_v3.1.1Version: 3.1.1 Release date: 2014-08-07 Default login: bananapi/bananapi & root/bananapi Kernel version: 3.4.90 Release notes: Link CheckSum: MD5: ED3E31854AFB4A01F1039920E283CAF3 ​SHA1: 6DFF841C694EFBCB6E8FB2E75F9FC2C27FC81659 CRC32: 065E18EB Lubuntu_For_OrangePi_v1.0.0Version: 1.0.0 Release date: 2014-11-29 Default login: Orangepi/Orangepi & root/Orangepi Kernel version: 3.4.90 Release notes: Link CheckSum: MD5: ED3E31854AFB4A01F1039920E283CAF3 ​SHA1: 6DFF841C694EFBCB6E8FB2E75F9FC2C27FC81659 CRC32: 065E18EB they simply COPIED whole website, there will be ZERO support for this board. Standard fly by night, boards today toilets tomorrow kind of business. Its amazing how people argue about single dollar price difference when whole product is useless.… Read more »

Al
Al
9 years ago

@cnx 2x c1 + p&h for $95 isn’t to bad , aud $23 more than 2 raspberrypi b+ from element14 ($38ea + free shipping for orders over $45) and the extra features are worth it.

eg http://au.element14.com/jsp/bespoke/bespoke7.jsp?bespokepage=e14/common/promotions/rpi-accessories.jsp&ICID=ap-rpi-bplus-hwb-an

steven
9 years ago

@rasz_pl Banana Pi was designed by xunlong software. We designed Orange Pi from the ODM to own brand. Banana Pi’s commercial secrets not convenient announced out. http://www.banana-pi.com/eaxw_view.asp?id=360 You had said there will be ZERO support for Orange Pi. Please visit http://www.orangepi.org/orangepibbsen/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=2&extra=page%3D1

steven
9 years ago

@all We are very willing to support and encourage everybody realize innovative ideas based on Orange Pi series. everybody can get orange PI for free.
http://www.orangepi.org/orange%20pi%20Apply/orangepiApply.html

TC
TC
9 years ago

SATA Port Multiplier support would be interessting
(A20 Chip supports, but not necessary the uBoot)

FransM
FransM
9 years ago

From the pictures on the ali website it seems the orange pi plus does not have sata and the nand flash is optional.
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/NEW-orange-pi-plus-Allwinner-A31s-Dual-Core-1GB-RAM-Open-source-development-board/1553371_32248189300.html

For the orange pi SATA is there, NAND is also listed as optional.

Patrick
Patrick
9 years ago

The Orange Pi seems very good, is the camera connector compatible to the Raspberry camera?? (Omnivision 5647)
I will buy it immediately if it is compatible!

rasz_pl
rasz_pl
9 years ago

@Patrick

good luck writing camera driver from scratch

Marc
Marc
6 years ago

Stop to do stupid comments, orange pi seems good better give a chance and rid off the all profiling

Khadas VIM4 SBC