I am interesting in your opinion about using different board instead of RPi0. There are few nice alternatives that offer much more functions. I just wonder if decision to stick with 0 is just costs or is there something else? I know that using any of those boards that are listed below will not be that easy from the software perspective - they have much smaller communities but it will be so much fun
So after a lot of hours in research I came up with the following list of boards that can be used as a base. I am leaning towards Banana Pi m3 or m2 but I have not decided yet.
I am travelling a lot and a thought that I can have gameboy size portable device that I can use to google chromecast to hotel room TV some video and play a great game in the same time is great! And even do some light work on that after I connect bluetooth keyboard and mouse.
What is needed for me to be an ideal board?
- performance
- decent amount of ram (2gb and up?)
- built in storage so that I can boot without sd card
- built in wifi
- MIPI/DSI interface so that I can directly connect a screen without any controller board (quick example: http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product ... 27148.html )
- sata port so that I can potentially use one of those in the future: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-shi ... 64265798b8 or http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-320-Serie ... SwMNxXUAaU
- battery charging interface
- elimination of powerboost/charging board, display controller board and I am left only with: sbc itself, buttons all-in-one board and amplifier.
And those are the boards that I am considering:
1. Pine A64+
Web site: https://www.pine64.com/product#intro
Pros:
- price
- mipi/dsi interface
- battery charging interface
Cons:
- no internal storage
2. Banana pi M3
web site: http://www.bananapi.com/product/detail_1.html
Pros:
- performacne! octa core cpu
- 2 gb of ram
- internal storage: 8gb
- built in wifi and bt
- sata
- mipi/dsi interface
- battery charging interface
Cons:
- price
- availability of microusb powered variant - instead of dc-barell version
- only two usb ports
3. Banana pi m2
web site: http://www.bananapi.com/product/detail_4.html
Slightly slower than m3 but still with quite a punch.
Pros:
- quad core cpu
- 1gb ram
- wifi
- mipi/dsi interface
- 4 usb ports
- battery charging interface
- price
Cons:
- no bluetooth
- no emmc memory
- availability
4. LattePanda
web site: http://www.lattepanda.com/products/
x86 windows compatible sbc !!!! That means we can play windows based games! We can have steam streaming!! cheapest version: 79usd.
Pros:
- x86!!!
- 2 or 4 gb version
- windows!
- mipi/dsi interface
- built in wifi and bt
- usb 3.0!
Cons:
- price of 4gb/64gb version is 140usd :/
- no sata
- only two usb 2.0 ports
- no battery charging interface
5. HiKey (LeMaker version) 2GB RAM
web site: http://www.lenovator.com/product/90.html#params
Pros:
- octa core
- 2 gb ram
- 8gb storage
- built in wifi
- mipi/dsi interface
Cons:
- price for 2gb is 109usd
- no ethernet (minor inconvenience)
- power requirements: 8v-18V@3A
- only digital audio output
Any other boards? Suggestions?
Thank you and have a nice day.
edits:
added 5.
