We earn commission when you buy through affiliate links.
This does not influence our reviews or recommendations.Learn more.
Raspberry has made computing fun and experimental, a stepping stone for future inventions.
Raspberry Pi shows you the huge space for creative and technological advancements that you might fill with new experiments.
What is Raspberry Pi?
Why Do You Need Alternatives To Raspberry Pi?
The answer lies in the diversity of projects and the unique requirements of individuals.
Some enthusiasts may require more processing power, additional ports, advanced graphics capabilities, or dedicated AI acceleration.
Here we will explore some of the best Raspberry Pi alternatives for you to consider.
The wide range of operating systems image compatibility is one of the top features that it has.
The list includes everything from Latest Linux 6.x to Ubuntu 22.10.
It has exciting features from the 4K Ultra-HD Video Decode Engine and hardware acceleration that enables 3D graphics.
A minimum of a 5V 1.5A MicroUSB power supply is recommended for sufficient power to this board.
The LED system indicates a huge amount of information about the power supply and other aspects of this board.
The GPIO (General Purpose Input/Output) of this board enables it to be used with an Arduino Hat.
Unlike Raspberry Pi 3, this board comes with ethernet connectivity only and no wifi on the board.
Also, it doesnt support anything from the ARM architecture family.
Raspberry Pi bootloaders can be loaded only with images provided by the manufacturer.
It supports all the inputs/outputs the same as the Pi 4B does.
All 4B Series HATs (Hardware Attached on Top) are supported by CM4.
Onboard PoE (Power over Ethernet) header allows the connection for connecting PoE HATs.
This eMMC series board comes with a Quad Core Cortex A72 64-bit processor.
Although there are so many amazing features, this board has some limitations too.
USB 2.0 is closed, and to use it, you need the overlay function.
The CPU model is ARM610 which is also competitive to beat Raspberry Pi alternatives.
This board computer takes your IoT applications to the next level through AIoT (Artificial Intelligence of Things).
High-frequency CPU equipped with an 8-core processor.
Bluetooth and wifi support give it an edge over other tools.
Being a step beyond other processors, it comes with 8K video encoder compatibility.
Users of Firefly ROC recommend it for research and production-based experiments and projects.
Tech support from the manufacturer is also available for the users.
It supports a variety of frameworks, including Caffe, MXNet, TensorFlow, PyTorch, etc.
It has open-source support for Android, Ubuntu, and Debian OS.
As per its specifications, this mini board computer is mostly recommended for advanced networking applications.
As it leads the connection with its onboard capabilities and functionalities.
The media bandwidth that it has allows it to be used successfully for media-based development projects.
Less information over the internet community and not that responsive customer tech support may lead to some issues.
But there are no issues with the functionalities of this board computer.
Improper documentation and insufficient powerhouse are also some concerns that existing users have shared online.
It supports wifi, LAN, Micro USB, and Bluetooth for connectivity.
Other GPIO options available are Micro US and HDMI input/output.
Its active cooling kit is super and provides enough ventilation and cooling options for the board.
This board from Khadas comes with a 4G LTE Module but doesnt support 5G LTE.
Hopefully, a new update for the 5G LTE support is still awaited.
Another drawback of this board is that it does not support some of the best DIY cases.
Also, it doesnt support IR remotes, as there are no receivers on this board.
Exclusive OS OOWOW by Khadas is available for this board.
Also, it comes with an expandable port that lets you expand its functionality further.
Its on-board AI-based accelerator NPU has TOPS (Trillion Operations Per Second) that enables faster processing.
For wifi support, you oughta order an extra module for PCI wifi.
Some users have issues getting enough tech support from the manufacturer of this board.
Multiple displays can be connected with this board more than one at a time.
Standalone 64-bit memory for the core and intensive software.
Online support and delivery of operating systems make it an optimum choice for technology geeks.
This board is more suitable for data handling related IoT projects.
It comes with an ASUS IoT cloud console for data analysis.
Advanced computing is possible with this board computer as it comes with exciting onboard features.
All these high-end systems allow better efficiency, along with 3D and cloud computing enhancement.
Finding a proper DIY case for this board computer might be challenging for the users.
Its Armv8 architecture makes it an optimum solution for IoT (Internet of Things) related projects.
Another good thing about this board is that it can be installed in three simple steps.
Frameworks like OpenCL and graphics accelerators enable it for 2D/3D graphical usage.
The wireless connection of this board has a faster transit speed than the normal board computers.
Transmission speeds are enhanced as well as secure over the connections with TLS 1.3 transmission process and AES encryption.
The size of this board size computer is impressive.
This one is just a credit card-sized board computer.
So it is very easy to fit into several places for the board computer projects developments.
GPIO interface is pretty much similar to all the other board computers available as Raspberry Pi alternatives.
The Processor is a quad-core Cortex-A7 that has a 1.2GHz frequency.
But this problem can be resolved after you load the manufacturer-provided SDK (Software Development Kit).
Direct loading of the OS from the SD card is sometimes an issue.
Next, check out the Raspberry Pi kit to unleash your creativity in upcoming projects.