Orange Pi 4 LTS Review: A Low Price Raspberry Pi 4 Alternative

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Orange Pi 4 LTS

(A Cost-effective Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Alternative).

Orange Pi recently launched a new SBC (Single board computer) series based on the snappy Rockchip RK3399 SoC equipped with a high-performance six-cores 64 Bit ARM Cortex-A72  processor, starting at a low price tag as low as $62.90 for a 3GB RAM model. If you are interested in the more high-end edition with 4GB RAM, it will cost $72.90.

On top of that, for users seeking a lower price and who don’t require an internal eMMC flash storage, the price can drop down to $54.90 for the 3GB RAM Model and $64.90 for the 4GB RAM model.

The raspberry pi 4 Model B retail price starts from an average selling price of $140, which is considered a pretty high price, especially for home consumers and individuals seeking cost-effective yet powerful hardware for open-source projects. That’s where the Orange Pi 4 LTS has a clear advantage.

Orange Pi 4 LTS

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Product Highlights

• Architecture: Based on the large and small sizes of big.LITTLE core architecture: Dual-core Cortex-A72 (large core)+ Quad-core Cortex-A53(small core).
• SoC: Rockchip RK3399 (28nm HKMG Process)/
• CPU: 6-core ARMR64-bit processor, main frequency speeds: 1.6GHz（3GB）/1.8 GHz（4GB).
• GPU:  High-performance Multi-core Mali-T860 GPU/
• Memmory: 4GB LPDDR4+16GB EMMC Flash (Other configurations are also available).
• Interfaces: x2 USB2.0, x1 USB3.0, x1 Ethernet, x1 USB3.0 Type-C, x1 HDMI, x1 Audio, x2 camera, x1 Mic, x1 26pin headers, x1 24pin Mini PCIe.
• Connectivity: 10/100M/1000M Ethernet (YT8531C), Support IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, 2T2R • Support BT 5.0.

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Package

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Unboxing

• x1 5V 4A Power adapter (Optional).
• x1 Metal Case Kit (Optional).
• x1 Orange Pi 4 LTS Board.

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A Closer Look at the Orange Pi 4 LTS

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Metal Case Kit (Optional)

The Orange Pi 4 LTS metal case has two separate housing parts assembled with four Philip-type screws. Additional accessories included in the Kit are a Philips screwdriver, an External WIFI antenna + Female Pigtail IPX to SMA cable. Xunlong company also added three thermal conductive pads cut in different dimensions and placed on top of the main RK3399 CPU Chip, 16GB eMMC Flash, and PMU / Ethernet chip.

Orange Pi 4 LTS Case Kit

On the user side, It was better if heatsink hols were included in the board, making it easier to mount a big heatsink with a fan. This type of arrangement is not ideal because of the thermal pad sizes. So this solution is not the most suitable for cooling the board chips, but it works and does the job in lowing temperatures.

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A Closer Look – The Orange Pi 4 LTS Case

Interfaces Access

The upper cover part covers most parts of the Orange Pi 4 LTS board, with a few spots left intentionally for better user accessibility without a need to reopen the case. For example, the microphone and other standard interfaces such as the 24pin Mini PCIe, 26 pin header, debug TTL UART, two Camera interfaces, a single LCD interface, and a Micro-SD card slot located on the back of the board are fully accessible.

Assembling the case

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Hardware Changes

The Realtek RTL8211E Ethernet chip was replaced with the equivalent MotorComm YT8531C Ethernet chip and CdTech wireless module with WIFI and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity.

Compared to the previous Orange Pi 4 board, you can find a few new changes in the hardware. The Orange Pi 4 LTS GPIO Header is 26Pin, not the typical 40Pin. This change is most likely changed due to the PCB layout design constraints after adding a pair of RAM chips.

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Software Support

Xunlong Software company team will provide Android, Ubuntu, and Debian images that should be available on Orange Pi’s official Download page and some PDF documentation. It’s not compressive in terms of software support compared to the famous raspberry 4 Model B. But, if you are willing to compromise and settle with 3-4 Linux distributions, The Orange Pi 4 LTS SBC can provide good value and a cheaper Pi alternative.

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Orange Pi 4 vs Orange Pi 4 LTS (Design comparison)

Excluding hardware differences between both models, Both boards maintain the same small form factor design with the exact PCB measurements of 56x91mm, so it will fit perfectly with previous cases designed for Orange Pi 4 board.

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Hardware Specification

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Orange Pi 4 LTS Board Interfaces

The Orange Pi 4 LTS board comes with a USB-C port used for power, data, or display.

Other interfaces include a 5V/3A power jack, a full-size HDMI port, MicroSD socket, two USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0, Gigabit Ethernet, 3.5mm audio I/O jack, a 24-pin mini PCIe slot. Onboard Mic, Serial debug, Dual MIPI-CSI connectors, and one LCD/MIPI-DSI connector is located on the back of the board.

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Prices & Availability

If you’re interested In learning more about this board, Check Shenzhen Xunlong Software CO., Limited Official AliExpress store (Links for each product are listed in the table below):

[AliExpress Store]

[Amazon Store]