Banana Pi BPI-W2 Multimedia Router / NAS Board Launched for $93

SinoVoIP has really been busy for products launches this month, as Banana Pi BPI-W2 is the fourth board they’ve started selling on Aliexpress.

The board is designed for media, storage, and networking application, thanks to its Realtek RTD1296 quad core processor combined with 2GB RAM, dual Gigabit Ethernet, dual SATA interfaces, M.2 slots, USB 3.0/2.0 ports, HDMI 2.0a output and input, and more.

Banana Pi BPI-W2 specifications have not changed since the early announcement last fall:

  • SoC – Realtek RTD1296 quad core Cortex A53 processor with ARM Mali-T820 MP3 GPU
  • System Memory – 2GB DDR4 RAM
  • Storage – 8GB eMMC flash (optional 16, 32 or 64GB), 2x SATA 3.0 interfaces,  micro SD slot up to 256GB
  • Video
    • Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60 Hz, mini DP
    • Input – HDMI 2.0 input up to 1080p60
    • Playback – HDR, 10-bit HEVC/H.265 up to 4K @ 60fps, H.264 up to 4K @ 24 fps, VP9 up to 4K @ 30 fps, BDISO/MKV, etc…
  • Audio I/O – HDMI, mini DP, 3.5mm audio jack
  • Connectivity
    • 2x Gigabit Ethernet
    • SIM card slot (requires mPCIe modem)
  • USB – 1x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0 ports, USB type C interface (still no idea if video and power are supported)
  • Expansions
    • 1x M.2 Key E “PCIe 1.1/SDIO” slot
    • 1x M.2 Key E “PCIe 2.0” slot
    • 40-pin “Raspberry Pi” GPIO header
  • Debugging – 3-pin UART connector
  • Misc – Power, reset and LSADC keys; RTC battery connector; IR receiver; fan header
  • Power Supply – 12V /2A via power barrel connector
  • Dimensions – 148 x 100.5 mm (same as Banana Pi R2 board)

Documentation is mostly in the same stage as it was last September, so not very complete, and some of the features of the boards like USB type C and M.2 slots are not fully documented. They did upload some excerpts from the datasheets listing the registers for SATA, PCIe, USB, etc…

Android 6.0 and 7.0 are supported, and the company has shown screenshot of Centos 64-bit, Debian 9, Raspbian, and Ubuntu MATE 16.04 running on the board with Linux 4.1.35. But again this was information provided last time, and maybe they have already updated to Linux 4.9 as they claimed they’d do. It’s hard to know because so far, they’ve not released any firmware images, no SDK.

If you enjoy a challenge, and some potential frustration, BPI-W2 board can be purchased for $93 + shipping on Aliexpress ($100.79 in total to the US).

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