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Embedded Computers By androidpimpAugust 24, 20226 Mins Read

NanoPi M4 Review: A Powerful High-End Raspberry Pi Alternative

By androidpimpAugust 24, 2022Updated:December 5, 2023No Comments6 Mins Read
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NanoPi M4
NanoPi M4
Table of contents
  1. NanoPi M4
  2. NanoPi M4 | 2GB RAM Edition
  3. NanoPi M4 | 4GB RAM Edition
  4. Specification
  5. The Package
  6. NanoPi M4: A Complete Kit, Including a Metal Case
  7. NanoPi M4 | All of the Items
  8. Quality
  9. Storage Space
  10. Hardware
  11. Cooling
  12. CPU Temperature
  13. Software Support & Benchmarks
  14. Benchmarks
  15. Final verdict
    1. NanoPi M4
  • Maybe you missed it? Orange Pi 4 LTS
  • NanoPi M4 Review, Specification, and Features.

NanoPi M4

The NanoPi M4 is a single board computer (SBC) based Rockchip RK3399 SoC designed by FriendlyElec company. It features the same form factor as well as ports and interfaces that are compatible with Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ SBC. Measuring only 85 x 56 mm, making this compact board an ideal platform for rapid product prototyping, including a wide selection of industrial and commercial applications.

The NanoPi M4 has an onboard 2.4G & 5G dual-band WiFi and Bluetooth module, four USB3.0 TypeA host ports, one Gbps Ethernet port, one HDMI 2.0 Type-A port, one 3.5mm audio jack, one Type-C port. In addition, it has an RPi-compatible 40-pin connector which populates dual MIPI-CSI camera interface, PCIe x2, USB2.0, eMMC socket, RTC port and etc.

The NanoPi M4 comes in two editions with different RAM configurations. 4GB RAM LPDDR3 and 2GB RAM DDR2. Both boards can be booted from either a TF card or an external eMMC module (purchased separately). The NanoPi M4 supports Ubuntu Desktop 18.04 (64-bit), Lubuntu l6.04 (32-bit), Ubuntu Core 18.04 (64-bit), Android 7.1, and Lubuntu Desktop with GPU and VPU acceleration. With these rich resources and powerful performance, it can be used in a wide selection of applications, such as machine learning, AI, deep learning, robots, industrial control, industrial cameras, advertisement machines, game devices, blockchain and more depending on your imagination.

NanoPi M4 | 2GB RAM Edition

NanoPi M4 ARM Board - 2GB EditionNanoPi M4 | 4GB RAM Edition

NanoPi M4 ARM Board - 4GB Edition

Specification

CPUSoC: Rockchip RK3399; CPU: big.LITTLE,Dual-Core Cortex-A72(up to 2.0GHz) + Quad-Core Cortex-A53(up to 1.5GHz)
GPUMali-T864 GPU,supports OpenGL ES1.1/2.0/3.0/3.1, OpenVG1.1, OpenCL, DX11, and AFBC
VPU4K VP9 and 4K 10bits H265/H264 60fps decoding, Dual VOP, etc
DDR3 RAMDual-Channel 4GB LPDDR3-1866, or Dual-Channel 2GB DDR3-1866
StorageOnboard eMMC Socket (Module is purchased  separately)
NetworkNative Gigabit Ethernet
USB HostUSB 3.0: four USB 3.0 Type-A ports; USB Type-C: Supports USB2.0 OTG and Power input
WiFi:802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combo module, dual antenna interface
Audio input/output PortAudio Out: 3.5mm Dual channel headphone jack, or HDMI; Audio In one microphone input interface
Debug Serial Port/UART0One Debug UART, 4 Pin 2.54mm header, 3V level, 1500000bps
Video Inputone or two 4-Lane MIPI-CSI, dual ISP, up to 13MPix/s, supports simultaneous input of dual camera data
Video output:HDMI: HDMI 2.0a, supports 4K@60Hz,HDCP 1.4/2.2; one 4-Lane MIPI-DSI
microSD SlotmicroSD Slot x 1
GPIO40Pin GPIO Extension ports:3 X 3V/1.8V I2C, up to 1 x 3V UART, 1 X 3V SPI, 1 x SPDIF_TX, up to 8 x 3V GPIOs, 1 x 1.8V 8 channels I2S. 24Pin Extension ports:2 independent native USB 2.0 Host, PCIe x2, PWM x1, PowerKey
LED1 x power LED and 1 x GPIO Controlled LED
RTC2 Pin 1.27/1.25mm RTC battery input connector
PCB Dimension8 Layer, 85 mm x 56 mm
PowerDC 5V/4A
Working temperature0℃ to 80℃
OS Support
  • Android 7.1.2
  • Android 8.1
  • Lubuntu 16.04 (32-bit)
  • FriendlyCore 18.04 (64-bit)
  • FriendlyDesktop 18.04 (64-bit)
Kernel versionLinux-4.4-LTS
U-boot-2014.10

The Package

  • NanoPi M4 Package 1
    NanoPi M4 Package 1
  • NanoPi M4 Package 2
    NanoPi M4 Package 2
  • NanoPi M4 Package 3
    NanoPi M4 Package 3
  • NanoPi M4 Package 4
    NanoPi M4 Package 4
  • NanoPi M4 Package 5
    NanoPi M4 Package 5
  • NanoPi M4 Package 6
    NanoPi M4 Package 6
  • NanoPi M4 Package 7
    NanoPi M4 Package 7

Unboxing Main Package (Basic Package)

Package Content:

  • 2x Wire WiFi Antennas.
  • 1x NanoPi M4 Board.

  • NanoPi M4 Basic Pkg Unboxing 1
    NanoPi M4 Basic Pkg Unboxing 1
  • NanoPi M4 Basic Pkg Unboxing 2
    NanoPi M4 Basic Pkg Unboxing 2
  • NanoPi M4 Basic Pkg Unboxing 3
    NanoPi M4 Basic Pkg Unboxing 3

NanoPi M4: A Complete Kit, Including a Metal Case

  • NanoPi M4 Items 01
    NanoPi M4 Items 01
  • NanoPi M4 Items 02
    NanoPi M4 Items 02
  • NanoPi M4 Items 03
    NanoPi M4 Items 03
  • NanoPi M4 Items 04
    NanoPi M4 Items 04
  • NanoPi M4 Items 05
    NanoPi M4 Items 05
  • NanoPi M4 Items 06
    NanoPi M4 Items 06
  • NanoPi M4 Items 07
    NanoPi M4 Items 07
  • NanoPi M4 Items 08
    NanoPi M4 Items 08
  • NanoPi M4 Items 09
    NanoPi M4 Items 09
  • NanoPi M4 Items 010
    NanoPi M4 Items 010
  • NanoPi M4 Items 011
    NanoPi M4 Items 011
  • NanoPi M4 Items 012
    NanoPi M4 Items 012
  • NanoPi M4 Items 013
    NanoPi M4 Items 013

NanoPi M4 | All of the Items

NanoPi M4 items

Quality

All items, including extra accessories, came well-packaged and in excellent condition. The only small thing that was missing for me was the spec sheet paper usually added inside the board package, summarizing the hardware specs and explaining the board’s basic operation to a none geek person.

NanoPi M4 | Board view

  • NanoPi M4 P1
    NanoPi M4 | Front view
  • NanoPi M4 P2
    NanoPi M4 | Back view
  • NanoPi M4 P3
    NanoPi M4 | Full view
  • NanoPi M4 P4
    NanoPi M4 | Rear view
  • NanoPi M4 P5
    NanoPi M4 | Front view
  • NanoPi M4 P6
    NanoPi M4 | Left view
  • NanoPi M4 P7
    NanoPi M4 | Right view

Storage Space

To make the M4 board cost-effective and flexible for the end user FriendlyElec incorporated an onboard eMMC socket that allows you to add a 16GB eMMC Module for a price of $12.00. it’s not a “must have” item, but if you want to gain quicker file read/ write speeds vs. loading all of them from a Micro SD Card it a definitely worth investing a few dollars.

NanoPi M4 | With eMMC Module

  • NanoPi M4 eMMC 1
    NanoPi M4 eMMC 1
  • NanoPi M4 eMMC 2
    NanoPi M4 eMMC 2
  • NanoPi M4 eMMC 3
    NanoPi M4 eMMC 3
  • NanoPi M4 eMMC 4
    NanoPi M4 eMMC 4

Hardware

Without digging into all the board details, if are planning on using this board as a type of Mini PC or a workstation, the hardware will provide above-decent performance suitable for running OpenOffice, Apps, surfing the web, and also watching 4K videos. The NanoPi M4 comes in two types of variants with different configurations, 2GB, and 4GB. The 2GB RAM will be enough for doing all and much more. Having said that, my best experience was running FriendlyDesktop 18.04 (64-bit) operating under light resources LXDE desktop environment worked much smoother compared to Lubuntu 16.04 (32-bit) and the general feeling was of no visible lags while moving windows across the screen or opening apps in the background.


Cooling

One of the main highlights of this package and worth considering buying is the passive cooling Heatsink unit which costs $6.99. It’s composed of an aluminum block slightly larger than the PCB dimensions, and a set of 4 Philips-type screws along with a silicon thermal pad. Assembling the board is very simple. The back side of the board is placed above the heatsink, where the main RK33999 chip is located while applying pressure against it.

NanoPi M4 | Heatsink Unit

  • NanoPi M4 HeatSink 1
    NanoPi M4/V2 HeatSink - PIC 1 of 8
  • NanoPi M4 HeatSink 2
    NanoPi M4/V2 HeatSink - PIC 2 of 8
  • NanoPi M4 HeatSink 3
    NanoPi M4/V2 HeatSink - PIC 3 of 8
  • NanoPi M4 HeatSink 4
    NanoPi M4/V2 HeatSink - PIC 4 of 8
  • NanoPi M4 HeatSink 5
    NanoPi M4/V2 HeatSink - PIC 5 of 8
  • NanoPi M4 HeatSink 6
    NanoPi M4/V2 HeatSink - PIC 6 of 8
  • NanoPi M4 HeatSink 7
    NanoPi M4/V2 HeatSink - PIC 7 of 8
  • NanoPi M4 HeatSink 8
    NanoPi M4/V2 HeatSink - PIC 8 of 8

NanoPi M4 | Board With Heatsink

  • NanoPi M4 Heatsink 02
    NanoPi M4 Heatsink 02
  • NanoPi M4 Heatsink 03
    NanoPi M4 Heatsink 03
  • NanoPi M4 Heatsink 04
    NanoPi M4 Heatsink 04
  • NanoPi M4 Heatsink 05
    NanoPi M4 Heatsink 05
  • NanoPi M4 Heatsink 06
    NanoPi M4 Heatsink 06
  • NanoPi M4 Heatsink 07
    NanoPi M4 Heatsink 07
  • NanoPi M4 Heatsink 08
    NanoPi M4 Heatsink 08
  • NanoPi M4 Heatsink 09
    NanoPi M4 Heatsink 09
  • NanoPi M4 Heatsink 010
    NanoPi M4 Heatsink 010
  • NanoPi M4 Heatsink 011
    NanoPi M4 Heatsink 011
  • NanoPi M4 Heatsink 012
    NanoPi M4 Heatsink 012
  • NanoPi M4 Heatsink 01
    NanoPi M4 Heatsink 01

NanoPi M4 | Putting All together

  • NanoPi M4 ASM 02
    NanoPi M4 ASM 02
  • NanoPi M4 ASM 03
    NanoPi M4 ASM 03
  • NanoPi M4 ASM 01
    NanoPi M4 ASM 01
  • NanoPi M4 ASM 04
    NanoPi M4 ASM 04
  • NanoPi M4 ASM 05
    NanoPi M4 ASM 05

Operation Temperature & Power Consumption 

The power consumption range for the NanoPi M4 is approximately 2.2W in Idle mode, without overloading system resources. In more moderate usage 7W is normally an acceptable range for RockChip Hardware. As for CPU temperatures, the normal standard range is between 36-44C.

Power Consumption | In Idle Mode

NanoPi M4 Power Consumption
NanoPi M4 Power Consumption

CPU Temperature

pi@NanoPi-M4:~$ cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone*/temp
36875
36250

Software Support & Benchmarks

If you are planning on using this board as a type of Mini PC or a workstation, the RK3399 hardware will provide the above-decent performance suitable for running OpenOffice, Apps, surfing the web, and also watching 4K videos. The NanoPi M4 comes in two types of variants with different configurations: 2GB, and 4GB. The 2GB RAM will be enough for doing all and much more, but if you need extra RAM the 4GB edition will cost you an additional $30. Having said that, my best experience was running Friendly Desktop 18.04 (64-bit) operating under light resources LXDE desktop environment worked much smoother compared to Lubuntu 16.04 (32-bit) and the general feeling was of no visible lags while moving windows across the screen or opening apps in the background.

Benchmarks

Based on the following benchmark test results performed under Friendly Desktop 18.04 environment, the Hardware performance was pretty good for a $65 SBC (Single Board Computer) with processing power that is slightly lower than a low-end Desktop PC.

NanoPi M4 | Benchmarks

  • NanoPi M4 Benchmarks 1
    NanoPi M4 Benchmarks 1
  • NanoPi M4 Benchmarks 2
    NanoPi M4 Benchmarks 2
  • NanoPi M4 Benchmarks 3
    NanoPi M4 Benchmarks 3
  • NanoPi M4 Benchmarks 4
    NanoPi M4 Benchmarks 4
  • NanoPi M4 Benchmarks 5
    NanoPi M4 Benchmarks 5
  • NanoPi M4 Benchmarks 6
    NanoPi M4 Benchmarks 6
  • NanoPi M4 Benchmarks 7
    NanoPi M4 Benchmarks 7
  • NanoPi M4 Benchmarks 8
    NanoPi M4 Benchmarks 8

NanoPi M4 FriendlyDesktop

  • NanoPi M4 FriendlyDesktop 3
    NanoPi M4 FriendlyDesktop 3
  • NanoPi M4 FriendlyDesktop 4
    NanoPi M4 FriendlyDesktop 4
  • NanoPi M4 FriendlyDesktop 5
    NanoPi M4 FriendlyDesktop 5
  • NanoPi M4 FriendlyDesktop 6
    NanoPi M4 FriendlyDesktop 6
  • NanoPi M4 FriendlyDesktop 7
    NanoPi M4 FriendlyDesktop 7
  • NanoPi M4 FriendlyDesktop 8
    NanoPi M4 FriendlyDesktop 8
  • NanoPi M4 FriendlyDesktop 9
    NanoPi M4 FriendlyDesktop 9
  • NanoPi M4 FriendlyDesktop 10
    NanoPi M4 FriendlyDesktop 10
  • NanoPi M4 FriendlyDesktop 11
    NanoPi M4 FriendlyDesktop 11
  • NanoPi M4 FriendlyDesktop 12
    NanoPi M4 FriendlyDesktop 12
  • NanoPi M4 FriendlyDesktop 2
    NanoPi M4 FriendlyDesktop 2

NanoPi M4 Lubuntu

  • NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 6
    NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 6
  • NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 7
    NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 7
  • NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 8
    NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 8
  • NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 9
    NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 9
  • NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 10
    NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 10
  • NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 11
    NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 11
  • NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 12
    NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 12
  • NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 13
    NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 13
  • NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 14
    NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 14
  • NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 2
    NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 2
  • NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 3
    NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 3
  • NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 4
    NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 4
  • NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 5
    NanoPi M4 Lubuntu 5

Final verdict

I am extremely pleased with the overall quality of all the components in the package, as well as the smooth performance and stability of the board on Ubuntu GUI. In conclusion, this SBC is truly excellent, and I strongly urge you to make a purchase.

NanoPi M4

NanoPi M4

$50.00
Check offer
* Official FriendlyElec Website *
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