When it was announced back in December of 2012, the ODROID-U2 looked like a pretty impressive little developer board for just $89. Now that it’s shipping to Hardkernel customers around the globe, early reports from some users seem to indicate that the Exynos-powered ODROID is indeed a very solid performer.
The ODROID boards probably won’t ever attain the same kind of success as the Raspberry Pi. At more than three times the price, the ODROID-U2 is aimed at users that want a little bit more than an inexpensive board for building DIY electronics projects. The RasPi is capable of much more than taking home automation requests from Siri or playing Minecraft, of course, but it obviously can’t match the ODROID-U2 in terms of sheer processing power.
Its 1.7GHz quad-core Exynos chip is still on par with what you’ll find in today’s high-end smartphones and tablets. Android runs quite smoothly on the board, and according to developer Rui Carmo the ODROID-U2 “blows [his] Raspberry Pi setup out of the water in terms of speed and flexibility.” Carmo has a full suite of apps running on his ODROID, including all the top Android web browsers, remote desktop tools, and even the AIDE for building his own Android apps right inside Android (how meta).
Android is, however, designed primarily for touchscreen devices. Certain actions are difficult to pull off using only a mouse and keyboard — like zooming in and out. However, the extra “oomph” provided by the 1.7GHz Exynos and 2GB of RAM means the ODROID -U2 is also quite capable of running Ubuntu or another ARM-based desktop Linux distribution.
For just over $120 when it’s all said and done (you’ll probably want to purchase the AC adapter and an eMMC module), the ODROID-U2 is well worth investigating for kiosk-type setups, media centers, or even for a secondary workstation on your desk. Just make sure the tiny, black heatsink doesn’t get lost in the shuffle.
No comments:
Post a Comment