The Banana Pi BPI-R4 Pro is a new router board based on MediaTek Filogic 880 (MT7988A) Cortex-A73 SoC offering two 10GbE SFP+ cages/RJ45 ports combos, four 2.5GbE RJ45 ports, two Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, and optional WiFi 7 support via the Banana Pi BPI-R4-MIC-BE14 dual mini PCIe module.
As its name implies, it’s a Pro/upgraded version of the Banana Pi BPI-R4 board first introduced in 2023, which doubles the memory to 8GB DDR4, doubles the SPI flash’s capacity to 256MB, and adds a few networking ports, M.2 expansion slots for a total of six, and a few other minor features highlighted in bold in the specifications below.
Banana Pi BPI-R4 Pro specifications:
- SoC – MediaTek MT7988A (Filogic 880) quad-core Arm Corex-A73 processor @ 1.8GHz with AI-powered packet accelerator called TOPS (Tunnel Offload Processor System)
- System Memory – 8GB DDR4
- Storage
- 8GB eMMC flash
- 256MB SPI NAND Flash
- MicroSD card slot
- 2x M.2 Key-M sockets for NVMe SSDs (see Expansion section for details)
- Networking
- 2x 10GbE SFP+ cages multiplexed with adjacent 10GbE RJ45 jacks. Implemented through Aeonsemi AS21010P controllers
- 4x 2.5 Gbps Ethernet RJ45 ports; note: MaxLinear MxL86252C switch used
- Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port
- Gigabit Ethernet via FPC connector (Note: connector 30 in photos below)
- USB – USB 3.2 port, USB 2.0 port
- Expansion
- 3x M.2 Key-B slots with USB 3.2 interface for 5G or 4G LTE connectivity, plus three nanoSIM slots, and an external SIM card slot connector
- 2x M.2 Key-M slots with 1-lane PCIe 3.0 for NVMe SSDs (note multiplexed with Key-B slots)
- 2x mini PCIe slots with 2-lane PCIe 3.0 for Wi-Fi 7 NIC (Network Interface Card)
- 26-pin GPIO header for expansion
- Debugging – USB Type-C debug console (instead of header)
- Misc
- Reset button, WPS button
- Cellular module LEDs, 8x LEDs, external LED FPC connector
- Bootstrap switch
- RTC battery connector
- 4-pin 12V PWM fan connector
- Power Supply
- 12V or 24V via 5.5/2.1mm DC jack
- 20V DC input via header or USB Type-C port
- Optional PoE module (RT5400)
- 4-pin 5V/12V output connector
- 2-pin 20V output connector
- Dimensions – 194 x 134 mm (Quite larger than previous Banana Pi BPI-R boards)
- Weight – TBD
On the software side, the Pro board should benefit from the work done on the earlier BPI-R4 board, and support “OpenWrt MTK”, Debian 12, and eventually mainline OpenWrt. However, the documentation website has no links to the system images at this time, only hardware information, the MT7988 datasheet, and a few links to related kernel commits and forum posts (requiring login, which is annoying).
The Banana Pi BPI-R4 Pro board can be purchased on the BPI shop for $165. It’s not listed for sale on the SinoVoIP Aliexpress store yet, but one third-party AliExpress seller is offering it at a premium with ($311) or without ($216) the WiFi 7 module. As a side note, the Banana Pi BPI-R4 is now available as a complete router called “Banana Pi BPI-R4 Finished Set” for about $190 with the board itself, the BE14 Wi-Fi 7 module, a cooling fan, a bottom heat sink for the Wi-Fi module, a metal enclosure, six Wi-Fi antennas, an Ethernet cable, and a 12V/5A power adapter. There have been complete kits on Amazon for a while, but as far as I can remember, not from Banana Pi themselves.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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