Radxa started its partnership with Qualcomm last with the Dragon Q6A SBC, but it turns out it was just the start, and the company showcased more Qualcomm SBCs and NAS systems at a Radxa + Qualcomm developer day on May 30, 2026.
The Radxa Q8B SBC will be based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen3 octa-core SoC and the Q5E SBC on a Dragonwing QCS6690 octa-core Kryo SoC. The company also teased DragonStation and DragonBay NAS systems, and a 2026 roadmap features a total of 22 Qualcomm systems made by Radxa.
Radxa Dragon Q8B
Dragon Q8B specifications:
- SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 compute platform
- Octa-core CPU – 4x 3.0 GHz Kryo Prime cores, 4x 2.4 GHz Kryo Efficiency Cores
- GPU – Adreno 690 GPU with DirectX 12 (DX12) API support
- DSP – Qualcomm Hexagon Processor, Qualcomm Sensing Hub
- AI – Qualcomm Neural Processing Engine SDK support for AI (up to 29+ TOPS)
- System Memory – Up to 32GB LPDDR4x RAM up to 4266 MT/s
- Storage
- MicroSD card slot
- UFS 3.1 module connector
- Up to 2x NVMe SSDs via M.2 Key-M PCIe Gen3 sockets (See Expansion section)
- Video Output
- HDMI 2.1 port
- 2x DisplayPort 1.4b via USB-C ports up to 4Kp120
- Audio
- 3.5mm audio jack
- Microphone connector
- Connectivity
- 2x 2.5GbE RJ45 ports
- Optional WiFi and Bluetooth via M.2 Key-E socket
- USB
- 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports with DP Alt. mode
- 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports
- 2x USB 2.0 Type-A ports
- Expansion
- M.2 Key-M 2280 (PCIe Gen3 x4) socket
- M.2 Key-M 2280 (PCIe Gen3 x2) socket
- M.2 Key-E 2230 socket for WiFi/Bluetooth
- 40-pin color-coded GPIO header with UART, I2C, SPI…
- 16-pin PCIe Gen3.0 x1 FFC connector compatible with Raspberry Pi FFC connector
- Misc
- Power button
- RTC connector
- Power Supply – USB-C PD connector
- Dimensions – 100 x 75 mm
We’re not told module as OS support, except Linux with “open-source toolchains” will be the focus here. The board itself targets Edge AI, Arm NAS, and intelligent gateways.
Radxa Dragon Q5E SBC
Dragon Q5E specifications:
- SoC – Qualcomm Dragonwing QCS6690
- CPU – Octa-core Qualcomm Kryo CPU 7-series (1x Kryo Prime core @ 2.0 GHz, 3x Kryo Gold @ 2.0 GHz, 4x Kryo Silver @ 1.8GHz)
- GPU – Qualcomm Adreno GPU 7-series
- DSP – Qualcomm Hexagon DSP with HVX and HMX
- ISP – Qualcomm Spectra ISP 665 image processing
- VPU
- Video Encode – Up to 4K @ 60 fps for H.264/H.265
- Video Decode – Up to 4K @ 120 fps for H.264/HEVC and up to 4K @ 30 fps for VP9
- AI performance – 6 TOPS
- Process – 4nm
- System Memory – Up to 16GB LPDDR5
- Storage
- MicroSD card slot
- UFS module interface
- Video Interfaces
- HDMI port up to 1080p90
- 4-lane MIPI DSI connector
- Camera – 4-lane MIPI CSI connector up to 32MP camera
- Networking – 2x 2.5GbE RJ45 ports, one with optional PoE
- USB – USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A port
- Expansion – 40-pin GPIO header with UART, SPI, I2C, I3C, etc.
- Misc
- Power and EDL buttons
- RTC battery connector
- PWM fan connector
- Power Supply – 5V via USB-C port
- Dimensions – 65 x 56 mm
The Dragon Q5E will support Debian-based Radxa OS and Ubuntu, and documentation will eventually be published on the Radxa documentation website.
DragonStation and DragonBayNAS systems
Two Qualcomm-based NAS systems by Radxa are also in the works in collaboration with FeiNiu, enabling support for fnOS. The DragonStation will be a 6-bay M.2 NVMe SSD NAS with support for 10GbE networking, and we’re told an AI accelerator card will enable support for 120B local models and operation of Agents such as OpenClaw and Hermes.
The DragonBay will be a 4-bay mainstream NAS built on an unnamed Qualcomm mobile platform, and offer high-capacity storage, media libraries, photo archiving, data backup, and multi-user file collaboration.
Radxa hasn’t released further technical details about the two NAS so far.
Roadmap and pricing
The company will be quite busy with Qualcomm projects this year, as the 2026 roadmap below (source: SBCWiki on X) shows a total of 22 products, from the existing Dragon Q6B to the high-end RoboX Q1000 robotic platform and rCore-Q1000 system-on-module, both based on the upcoming Dragonwing IQ10-series SoCs. There will also be Raspberry Pi Compute Module-compatible modules and a cluster system based on the Dragonwing IQ-9075 SoC, also found in the company’s Fogwise AIRbox Q900.
“Pleasantly surprising” prices for the Dragon Q8B and Q5E were supposed to be announced at the developer event on May 30, but I was unable to find public reports and get answers from Radxa. Most information above was gathered from Radxa’s WeChat account.
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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I don’t have high expectations, but I still hope those boards will be released at a low price thanks to Chinese CXMT memory.
Both Hardkernel and Radxa are releasing new products with good performance and nice features, but the value of these new products is being severely undervalued due to the insanely high prices of DRAM + NAND memory chips.
It’s possible, using LPDDR4X means it’s not DDR5 and I’ve recently noticed a significant price step between the two generation. That might help.
What after soaring 2200% they have dropped 10%!! As they are still crazy prices and killing the feasibility of matching with low/middle end SoCs.
Yeah, $209 – 8GB is insane. These years, I’ve bought used business tinyminimicro from Dell, Lenovo, or HP, rather than these board. Feels like not worth it, at least for my use cases.
> 4x 3.0 GHz Kryo Prime cores, 4x 2.4 GHz Kryo Efficiency Cores
We all should stop spreading this marketing BS. The Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 is built around off-the-shelve Cortex-A78C/X1C. Qualcomm almost a decade ago stopped designing own Kryo cores. Starting with 260/280 their ‘Kryo’ cores were just modified Cortex cores and in the meantime they use wrongly labeled standard Cortex cores.
The only custom cores they use today are those Oryons that came with the acquisition of Nuvia five years ago.
How do we know, whether or not these cores are modified in any way? Even if they only support one additional, possibly even undocumented instruction, it would no longer be a standard core. And hasn‘t “Kryo” always been just a label for a Qualcomm modified ARM core? If so, why would you call the continuation of the practice “marketing BS”?
> How do we know, whether or not these cores are modified in any way?
Since we can ask the CPU itself through /proc/cpuinfo for example. There’s a ‘CPU implementer’ and a ‘CPU part’ field amongst others. And the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 when queried identifies itself with ‘CPU implementer: 0x41’ (that’s ARM) and 0xd4b/0xd4c (A78C/X1C) while Qualcomm’s marketing department babbels about ‘Kryo 6xx silver/gold/prime’.
Qualcomm’s ID would be 0x51 instead and they marked their Cortex derivates of the last decade by using the 0x800 – 0x805 range. Compiler vendors and check software treat this ‘Kryo’ range as genuine Cortex cores, see here for example: https://github.com/Dr-Noob/cpufetch/blob/233565c0522cf9aefef85fe2be8d64970fb8f86a/src/arm/uarch.c#L251-L256
In that case, it would appear, that we are indeed looking at marketing BS renaming.
Thank you!
Pre-orders are up for the Dragon Q8B.
Prices:
8GB – $209
16GB – $329
32GB – $569
Shipping will start at the end of July.
https://arace.tech/products/radxa-dragon-q8b
I’ve been given a coupon code: DRAGON-Q8B-OFF