Orange Pi Zero 3 2GB LPDDR4 Allwinner H618 4-Core 64 Bit Single Board Computer, Support WiFi 5.0/Bluetooth 5.0, Development Board Run Linux/Debian/Ubuntu/Android(2GB)

This is my new favorite low priced sbc, and ranks better than raspberry pi zero 2w, and much much faster. For under 30 bucks(I got it for 20 bucks shipping it internationally). It has a single USB c power, a USB port, gpio, and micro HDMI out, the GPU is a mali 31, and a quad core A53 arm processor with bt and wifi included, you would think this was going to be power hungry but can run off a TV USB power . The form factor is very small and a nice comprimise as they have a full USB port, which I wish raspberry pi zero had. You will need to invest in a decent SD card, a USB hub, and a micro HDMI adapter, a tiny heatsink, and air mouse; total cost comes out to 38 bucks, still cheaper than a android tv box... This time instead of running Linux, I tried running running orange pi android addition, and they even have options to activate theri i2c and gpio and android. I appreciate orange pi in compiling a lean android image, with no bloatware, with modern Android 12. This thing runs Plex and even Minecraft at 4k smoothly side loading each APK file. It's got a nice GPU and I feel it's overkill to be used headless... This diy android tv box is just so fast, and runs on such low power... It runs 4k Minecraft using 5v, and less than 1 amp of power, therefore it can run off your TV.

The hardware is pretty capable, considering the price. I built a little tablet with it, it feels pretty snappy running X. The software that is provided by the manufacturer is not great. The Orange PI Android image is broken and does not boot, and there is no Armbian support yet. You won't find a lot of information online about this board, the image downloads come straight from Google drive and package sources from China. As someone who deals with these type of boards quite often, I can make it work, but it takes a lot more time than it should. If you are new to SBCs, I would recommend getting a more common board with better support, at least for now.

I bought this as a raspberry pi alternative. It worked great I was able to set it up as a router, install pi hole, and every other program you would by a raspberry pi for.Easy to use if you are familiar with how to use a PI. Great for projects.