ASUS unveiled the Tinker Board 2 SBC with faster a Rockchip RK3399/OP1 processor together with the ASUS Tinker Board 2S board that adds a 16GB eMMC flash last October without pricing information. The good news is that the 2GB RAM version of Tinker Board 2S is now available on Amazon and Aliexpress for $120 and up. Note you’ll get a 5% discount if you are a follower on Aliexpress for a total of $132.99 including shipping.
Compared to the first Tinker Board, the new boards are also offered with up to 4GB LPDDR4 RAM, an additional video output option with USB-C DisplayPort Alt mode, an upgrade to USB 3.0 ports and WiFi 5, RTC battery support, and a more stable 12V to 19V DC input.
- SoC – Rockchip RK3399 (OP1) hexa-core processor with 2x Arm Cortex-A72 cores up to 2.0 GHz, four Cortex-A53 cores @ up to 1.5 GHz, Mali-T860 MP4 GPU @ 800 MHz
- System Memory – 2GB LPDDR4, dual-channel (option for 4GB)
- Storage – 16GB eMMC flash, and MicroSD slot
- Video output & Display I/F
- 1x HDMI 2.0 up to 4Kp60 with HDMI CEC
- 1x 22-pin 4-lane MIPI DSI connector
- 1x DisplayPort 1.2 via USB-C port
- Audio – 1x 3.5mm audio jack; Realtek HD codec with 192KHz/24-bit audio
- Camera – 15-pin MIPI CSI connector
- Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, dual-band 802.11 b/g/n/ac WiFi 5 2T2R, Bluetooth 5.0
- USB – 3x USB 3.2 Gen1 host ports, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C OTG port
- Expansion
- 40-pin header with GPIOs, SPI, I2C, UART, PWM
- 2-pin contact point with 1x PWM signal, 1x S/PDIF signal
- Misc – Button, fan header, RTC battery header, power-on/recovery headers
- Power Supply – 12V to 19V via DC jack
- Dimensions – 85.6 x 54 cm
Tom’s Hardware got a review sample in July, and the review is rather negative because of the “slow eMMC” (despite the performance being equivalent to a 16GB Class A1 MicroSD card), some Raspberry Pi accessories like the camera would not work with the board, 1080p video playback struggling in the web browser, and at the time of review, the lack of support for ASUS.GPIO Python library for GPIO control, but it seems to be working now.
ASUS Tinker Board 2S ships with a thick Heatsink, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth antennas, a shielding bag, and a Quick Start Guide. So you’d still need to get yourself a 12V to 19V power adapter, and a USB-C cable for flashing firmware to the eMMC flash. You should be able to use a laptop power brick plus potentially a plug adapter kit to make sure the plug fits into the 5.5/2.1mm DC jack. An alternative to ASUS Tinker Board 2S with the same Rockchip OP1 processor and onboard eMMC flash is the Rock Pi 4 Plus SBC with a much lower starting price of $49 plus shipping, but that’s provided you can find it in this configuration.
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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