Shenzhen-based development board maker Orange Pi has released a new model adding 2G cellular connectivity. Priced at US$10, the new model is competing against the newly released Raspberry Pi Zero W.
Shenzhen-based development board maker Orange Pi has released a new model adding 2G cellular connectivity. Priced at US$10, the new model is competing against the newly released Raspberry Pi Zero W.
The Orange Pi 2G-IoT has a SIM card slot with 2G antenna supporting GSM/GPRS data connections for IoT built-in applications. It features a 1GHz ARM Cortex-A5 32-bit processor, a Vivant GC860 graphics processor and 256MB of RAM. The board also supports 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1.
Supported operating systems include Android, Ubuntu, Debian and Raspberry Pi. The model features a Raspberry Pi-compatible 40-pin GPIO connector, video and audio inputs and outputs, a microSD slot and USB 2.0 ports.
In regards to connectivity, Raspberry Pi Zero W uses Cypress CYW43438 wireless chip and provides 802.11n wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.0. And it features 512MB of RAM and a mini-HDMI port.
Raspberry Pi Zero W is like the improved version of Raspberry Pi Zero, which the company launched in November 2015 with a price tag of US$5.
Orange Pi turned famous since its model undercut the Raspberry Pi 3 on the price. This time the company is launching the new model to go after Raspberry Pi Zero W, with the same price but adding 2G cellular connectivity.
However, before adopting Orange Pi’s new model, developers might want to check which carriers in the region still support 2G. Many service providers have announced they will discontinue 2G networks. For example, AT&T buried its 2G network at the end of 2016 while Verizon plans to kill its 2G CDMA network by the end of 2019.