Orange Pi 5B is a variant of the Rockchip RK3588S powered Orange Pi 5 SBC with up to 256GB eMMC flash and a soldered-on wireless module offering WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, at the cost of losing the M.2 2242 socket and 16MB QSPI NOR flash found in the original board.
The board still comes with HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4 (USB-C), and MIPI DSI display connectors, three camera connectors, a Gigabit Ethernet interface, a few USB ports, and a 26-pin GPIO header for expansion.
Orange Pi 5B specifications with the new features highlighted in bold, and the missing ones as strikethrough text:
- SoC – Rockchip RK3588S octa-core processor with 4x Cortex-A76 cores @ up to 2.4 GHz, 4x Cortex-A55 cores @ up to 1.8 GHz, Arm Mali-G610 MP4 GPU, 6 TOPS AI accelerator
- System Memory – 4GB, 8GB, or 16GB LPDDR4/4x (32GB RAM is also listed, but not for sale)
- Storage – 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, or 256GB eMMC flash,
16MB QSPI NOR Flash, MicroSD card slot,M.2 2242 socket for NVMe SSD - Video Output
- HDMI 2.1 up to 8Kp60
- DisplayPort 1.4 up to 8Kp30 via USB-C port (DP 1.4 and USB 3.1 ports are multiplexed, instead of just using USB-C DisplayPort Alt mode as per RK3588S specs)
- 2x 4-lane MIPI DSI connector up to 4Kp60
- Camera I/F – 1x 4-lane MIPI CSI connector, 2x MIPI DCPHY connectors (4-lane DPHY v2.0) for up to 3x cameras
- Audio
- ES8388 audio codec
- 3.5mm audio jack with headphone and microphone support
- Onboard MIC
- Support for HDMI 2.1 eARC
- Networking
- Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port via YT8531C GbE transceiver
- Built-in dual-band Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 with BLE support
- USB – 1x USB 3.0 port, 1x USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) Type-C port, 2x USB 2.0 ports including one multiplexed with the USB-C port
- Expansion – 26-pin header with up to 17x GPIO, 3x UART, 6x PWM, 2x I2C, 2x CAN, etc…
- Debugging – 3-pin UART header for serial console
- Misc – Power, MaskROM, and Recovery buttons, Power LED, status LED
- Power Supply
- 5V/4A via USB Type-C port
- RK806-1 PMU
- Dimensions – 100 x 62 mm
- Weight – 52 grams
Shenzhen Xunlong Software provides Orange Pi OS (Android), Orange Pi OS (Arch), Debian 11, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 20.04, and Android 12 images. Some of the images (Ubuntu/Debian) are developed in collaboration with Armbian where the company pays for the integration and maintenance of the images. Right now, neither the Orange Pi nor Armbian websites have images for the Orange Pi 5B, but you’ll find images for the earlier Orange Pi 5.
The price for the Orange Pi 5B is higher than for the Orange Pi 5 due to the eMMC flash and wireless module with four models currently for sale:
- $89.90 for 4GB RAM and 32GB eMMC flash
- $115.00 for 8GB/64GB configuration
- $149.00 for 16GB/128GB configuration
- $169.00 for 16GB/256GB configuration
Provided software support is good enough for your specific requirements, it’s still very good value for money, considering one Orange Pi 5S – and other RK3588(S) boards – packs the performance of three to four Rasberry Pi 4 SBCs depending on the workload. You’ll find the Orange Pi 5B for sale on Amazon and Aliexpress. Additional information may also be found on the product page.
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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