By 
In the market for small, low cost SBCs, the Raspberry Pi Zero and it’s wireless brothers, the RPI Zero W and 2W reign almost supreme. After all, it’s hard to compete with a $5 and $15 computer. Given the fact it uses the exact same naming (Pi Zero 2W), it’s pretty clear what the intent of Orange Pi is.
The question is, does it deliver? The answer is it depends.
The Orange Pi Zero 2W is a higher end system if you look at the hardware. As opposed to the Raspberry Pi boards, it has 1GB to 4GB options,. That clearly impacts the price, and the Orange Pi Zero 2W can cost up to $33, but the more comparable model to the RPI costs about $21.
What do we get for those extra $6? A faster processor at 1.5GHz compared to 1GHz for the RPI Zero line. Also, double the memory. If there was one complaint that the RPI Zero and Zero W were too limited or stripped down, then the Orange Pi Zero line clearly has improved capabilities.
The Raspberry Pi Zero clearly went for low cost and small size. But Orange Pi seems to have gone slightly higher end, if we look at the specs.
Let’s look at more of the hardware specs:
Hardware
The Orange Pi Zero 2W shares the same design as the Orange Pi Zero W board but has some improvements as well
- Processor: Allwinner H618 Quad-core Cortex-A53 @ 1.5GHz
- Memory: Options from 1GB to 4GB
- Storage: The microSD card slot, and 16MB On-Board SPI Flash
- Graphics: mini HDMI with 4K60 Support
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 support
- USB Ports: USB-C with USB2.0 support
- Power Input: USB-C
- GPIO: Standard 40-pin GPIO header
Clearly there’s a lot in this small board. One nice feature is the modern upgrade of the wireless connectivity with support for Bluetooth 5.0 instead of the older Bluetooth 4.2.
There’s a few things that we noticed with the OPI Zero, which is that the 24-pin expansion adds some critical interfaces. You can extend the board with 2 USB 2.0 interfaces and Ethernet. For some industrial applications the Ethernet especially is going to be critical, and supporting that in such a small board shows how much they’re trying to pack in such a small form factor.
Comparatively, the RPI Zero 2W seems to be geared towards video applications with its dedicated CSI-2 camera connector, so that may be big difference depending on your application.
Software
We’re written about the issues with Orange Pi’s software efforts, which are hampered by a slew of boards and a lack of focus. Be prepared to find community projects that work better or are more stable, or put in the work yourself. That’s not necessarily unusual for SBCs, but there are issues at a lower level that will cause a lot of time to be spent on things other than the application.
Price
Our Take
The Orange Pi Zero 2W is a great device for a good price, and has some unique features like USB and Ethernet expansion, but it’s hampered by its buggy software and smaller community.