Shenzhen Wesion recently unveiled Khadas VIM3L SBC designed for HTPC / media center use cases. The board is based on Khadas VIM3 PCB but replaces the powerful Amlogic A311D processor by Amlogic S905D3 processor that should be just as good for video playback, but enable much cheaper hardware.
Khadas VIM3L Pre-orders
The board is not quite available yet, but the company has started to take pre-orders for Khadas VIM3L at discounted prices either as a bare board with Android 9.0 pre-installed ($49.99), or as a CoreELEC HTPC kit with enclosure, heatsink, WiFi antennas, and IR remote control ($69.99).
Both feature Amlogic S905D3 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor coupled with 2GB LPDDR4(X) RAM, 16GB eMMC flash, and support 4Kp60 video output and playback with HDR support.
Prices will increase with time as follows:
- September 3-16 (Early Bird) – $49.99 and $69.99 for the board and HTPC kit respectively
- September 17 – October 7 (Punctual Bird) – $54.99 and $74.99
- October 8 and beyond- $59.99 and $79.99
Note that worldwide shipping is already included in the price, so you don’t need to pay an additional shipping fee as most other companies do. The company will start shipping pre-orders on October 30, 2019.
Khadas VIM3L will support the same accessories as VIM3 with for example the heatsink, fan, M2X extension board with PoE, 4G, and NVMe SSD support, or TS050 MIPI DSI touchscreen display.
While mentioning cooling, the company notes the following which matches my experience with VIM3 board:
S905D3 is capable of operating in passive cooling mode whilst running Android OS.
If booting Linux, or 3rd party distros, adding the 3705 Cooling Fan for active cooling is recommended.
Khadas VIM1 and VIM2 Price Reductions
With the recent launch of Khadas VIM3 & VIM3L boards, the previous VIM boards become less interesting, so it makes sense for them to lower their prices. Khadas VIM board, now known as VIM1, is powered by Amlogic S905X processor, while VIM2 features Amlogic S912 octa-core processor.
The new prices are as follows:
- VIM1 Basic (1GB RAM, 8GB EMMC) price has dropped to $44.99 from $54.90
- VIM1 Pro (2GB RAM, 16GB EMMC) now costs $54.99 instead of $69.90
- VIM2 Pro (3GB RAM, 32GB EMMC 5.1, AP6398S Wi-Fi, w/ Bluetooth 5.0) sells for $99.99 (was $119.90)
- VIM2 Max (3GB DDR4, 64GB EMMC 5.1, AP6398S Wi-Fi, w/ Bluetooth 5.0) is also getting a $20 disctoun to $119.99
If you are instersted by those older boards, you can get VIM1 and VIM2 here and there respectively.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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