Raspberry Pi changed the world for everyone that loves to do all things homebrew.  The Raspberry Pi made so simple to come up with all kinds of DYI projects. That said everyone knows that these little darlings don’t have the power needed to handle any real intensive tasks. ASUS hopes to change that. They are hoping that their new Tinker Board can do better. There was not much fan fare or press as the company quietly released its own board. The Tinker Board is almost the same size as the Pi but packs in a quad-core Rockchip processor that has the power needed to play 4K video and 24-bit audio. The goodness does not stop there. The board also has twice as much RAM as the Pi. It has 2GB of RAM, a gigabit Ethernet and the latest generation of SDIO for add-on boards.

ASUS won’t have as much help getting started since Raspberry Pi has such a following of loyal DYI fans behind it. The Tinker Board is also more expensive so that is not going to help out. The hardware is not that much more expensive but nevertheless $68 is more than the $30 you can get a Pi. The Tinker Board runs on a variant of Debian Linux which means that it supports Kodi right out of the box. It will be interesting to see will ASUS be able to overcome the Pi’s years of developer support.

The Tinker Board features a fast on-board processor to increase its operational speed. It also features Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities to enhance the functionality to allow connection to a variety of wireless networks. Here are the full specs:
  • Quad core 1.8GHz ARM Cortex-A17 CPU
  • 2GB Dual channel LPDDR3 memory
  • Gigabit LAN and Bluetooth 4.0 + EDR connectivity
  • 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi
  • 4x USB 2.0 ports
  • 40-pin Internal header with 28 GPIO pins
  • Contact points for PWM and S/PDIF signals
  • 1x 3.5mm Audio jack connection
  • CSI port for camera connection
  • DSI port supporting HD resolution
  • 1x HDMI 2.0 port to support 4K resolution
  • Micro SD port supports UHS-I
  • Supports Debian OS with KODI
  • Power supply: 5V/ 2A Micro USB (not included)

By Rubens Saintel

Proud father, #Haitian, photographer, consultant, writer & entrepreneur. I love video games, movies, plays, technology (surprise), beta testing apps and all things sci-fi. SaintelDaily.com |AppleWatch101.com | NBA101.com