Software Support
Orange Pi provides customized editions of Ubuntu Jammy and Debian, designed specifically for both server and desktop applications, operating on kernel version 5.15.147. For our testing, we intentionally chose the Ubuntu Jammy desktop edition featuring the GNOME desktop environment. Overall, our experience was highly positive, characterized by a seamless graphical user interface (GUI) that performed without any noticeable lag. You can likely disable the extra GUI animations for an even better experience. Furthermore, Orange Pi provides a lightweight version of the XFCE desktop environment, promising enhanced performance and efficiency.
Orange Pi 4A with Ubuntu Jammy desktop.
Available system resources
Out of the total available RAM of 3.81 gigabytes, the operating system utilized only 782 megabytes. This indicates that a significant amount of the RAM is still free and available for use by other applications or processes. Our results indicate that the operating system is fine-tuned, managing memory resources effectively without strain, and should potentially enhance overall performance for memory-intensive tasks.
Displaying system resources with htop on Ubuntu GNOME (Screenshot)
Installing Android OS
To burn the image, you will need the PhoenixCard burning tool, which provides two main options. If you have acquired an eMMC chip, you can burn the image directly onto it; alternatively, you can burn it onto a microSD card. The process is straightforward and uncomplicated.
What’s included in the Android image?
The Orange Pi team offers a stock Android ROM featuring a simple, basic launcher that crashes from time to time. However, it comes with a pre-installed Chinese game, an ad testing tool, and a WebView browser tester that can only be uninstalled with root access, which many users may find unnecessary. Additionally, the absence of the Google Play Store is a drawback, limiting the overall user experience. For those who require access to the Play Store, the best alternatives are to manually install the APKs or to use the Aptoide app store.
Screenshots of the Orange Pi 4A running Android 13.
What is the assessment of the overall performance?
We were impressed by the fast speed and minimal lag during our experience running Android 13. The response time surpassed our expectations, resulting in an exceptionally enjoyable interaction. Additionally, we successfully installed the latest 32-bit edition of Kodi v21.1 (Omega), which performed remarkably well. Moreover, Kodi’s system information indicates that the application can efficiently utilize the full 4GB of available RAM, a significant advantage that particularly enhances the performance of memory-intensive plugins and add-ons.
Can Kodi play video files smoothly?
We found that playing videos in 1080p resolution yielded the best results, which satisfies most Kodi enthusiasts. In our attempts, 4K playback often fell short and resulted in laggy performance.
Running Kodi v21.1 (Omega) (Screenshots)
Do you have an NVMe SSD installed?
The 1TB NVMe drive we installed worked well under Android. In terms of RAM usage, the OS utilized about 2.2 GB of the available 4 GB, bolstered by an extra 1 GB of virtual RAM to elevate performance further.
Available RAM Information (Screenshot)
We also verify hardware info using the CPU-Z application.
