FriendlyARM releases NanoPi Neo Plus2 development board for $25

Manufacturer FriendlyARM has released the development board NanoPi Neo Plus2 for 25 dollars, converted with VAT that is about 26 euros. The NanoPi Neo Plus2 has to compete with the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B.

The board is an expanded version of the previously released NanoPi Neo 2, which costs $15. Like its predecessor, the Plus version has a soc with four ARM Cortex A53 cores that run at 1.5Ghz, but has an extra USB port and 1GB of ram, twice as much as the older model. For storage, the development board has 8GB emmc flash memory. The device runs on UbuntuCore 16.04 and supports Debian, for use in combination with the NanoPi NAS Dock.

The NanoPi Neo Plus2 has a Gigabit Ethernet connection and a micro USB port that serves as a power connection. The storage memory can be expanded with a micro SD card. Wifi is provided but wifi ac is not supported. There is, however, bluetooth 4.0 support. The dimensions are 52x40mm. FriendlyARM sells a basic kit for $29 that includes the development board, a micro-USB cable, a heatsink and a thermal pad.

FriendlyARM’s development board will compete with the slightly more expensive Raspberry Pi 3 Model B. The soc, working memory and support for WiFi and Bluetooth are comparable in both development boards. The NanoPi Neo Plus2 has the added value of, among other things, the Gigabit Ethernet connection.