Conclusions and Verdict
The Positive
The Orange Pi 4A stands out as a decent single-board computer, offering impressive competition against the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, which comes with 4GB of RAM and is priced between $45 and $50. The Orange Pi 4A features a powerful 8-core Allwinner T527 processor, providing excellent multicore performance and low power efficiency.
This board features an impressive array of display and camera interfaces, including an M.2 M-key socket for NVMe SSD, greatly enhancing its versatility. What distinguishes it from other low-end single-board computers is its exceptionally effective power management system, which safeguards the main SoC chip from overheating.
Furthermore, it excels in managing floating-point operations, making it perfect for demanding applications that require substantial computational power, including artificial intelligence and multimedia processing.
The Allwinner T527 processor is equipped with a HiFi4 DSP, elevating audio processing capabilities to new heights and delivering exceptional performance for applications that require top-notch audio output.
The 4A board can serve as an entry-level mini PC, delivering above-decent performance. It generally operates at much cooler temperatures than the Rockchip RK3588S, especially when managing lighter resource loads. Under heavier loads, the CPU temperature can reach or exceed 57°C and above.
We strongly recommend investing in a high-quality heat sink and fan connected to the GPIO header pins to ensure peak performance. Additionally, our experience with the Ubuntu operating system on this hardware has been exceptionally positive.
The less positive
The 4A model M.2 Key-M interface is limited to a 1-lane PCIe, capping performance at approximately 500 MB/s. Additionally, the USB host ports are only type 2.0. While this may not be a dealbreaker for many users, having an M.2 socket is certainly preferable to having nothing at all.
Business inquiries
If you have any business inquiries or questions regarding this product or other offerings, please feel free to reach out.
Business inquiries contact info:
- Name: Tango
- Title: Sales Manager
- Skype: rikomagic002
- Website: www.orangepi.org
- Skype: live.cid.155b9d2baf26cbf7
Price and Availability
Currently, there are two variants available at attractive price points: the 2GB RAM edition is projected to retail for approximately $35, while the 4GB RAM model is expected to be priced at around $40. Although these prices do not include shipping, they offer incredible value considering their specifications. For more details, be sure to check out the official Orange Pi store on AliExpress.
