Banana Pi with quad -A55 Amlogic S905X3 launches at $61

Banana Pi with quad -A55 Amlogic S905X3 launches at $61

May 28, 2021 — by Eric Brown

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SinoVoip has launched a $61 “Banana Pi BPI-M2 Pro” SBC with an up to 2.0GHz quad-core, Cortex-A55 Amlogic S905X3, 2GB RAM, 16GB eMMC, GbE, WiFi/BT, and 40-pin GPIO.

The Banana Pi BPI-M2 Pro SBC that was revealed in March has gone on sale at AliExpress for $61 with 2GB LPDDR4 and 16GB eMMC. The open-spec, community-backed BPI-M2 Pro is SinoVoip’s second Amlogic S905X3 powered SBC after the Banana Pi BPI-M5, which is selling for $66 to $88 with 4GB LPDDR4 and 16GB eMMC. (The higher BPI-M5 price appears to include WiFi/BT, a power supply, and an acrylic case.)

BPI-M2 Pro (left) and BPI-M5
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One would have expected the BPI-M2 Pro to be bit more than $5 cheaper than the very reasonably priced BPI-M5, considering it has half the RAM, lacks the BPI-M5’s audio jack, and has 2x USB 2.0 ports instead of 4x. Yet, the BPI-M2 Pro’s standard WiFi/BT and smaller size are no doubt part of the appeal.

The BPI-M2 Pro has the same 65 x 65mm form factor as the earlier, Allwinner H3 powered Banana Pi BPI-M2+. As a result, customers use the same accessories, including a metal enclosure. The BPI-M5, meanwhile, measures 92 x 60mm.

The 12nm fabricated Amlogic S905X3 is equipped with 4x Cortex-A55 cores which are variably listed by SinoVoip as clocked to 1.5GHz or 2GHz. There is also a Mali-G31 GPU.

Other Amlogic-based boards include the $50 Khadas Vim3L with a similarly quad-core, Cortex-A55 Amlogic S905D3 and the higher-end Odroid-N2-Plus with a hexa-core Amlogic S922X. There is also the Khadas Vim3 with the hexa-core Amlogic A311D.

OS images have yet to be posted on the BPI-M2 Pro wiki, although schematics are available. As the CNXSoft post that alerted us to the BPI-M2 Pro launch noted, the SBC likely supports all the images on the BPI-M5 wiki. These include Android 9 and Linux flavors including Ubuntu, Debian, CoreELEC, and Huawei OpenEuler.

BPI-M2 Pro detail views
(click image to enlarge)
The specs do not appear to have changed since March aside from a bump up on one spec list from HDMI 2.0 to 2.1. Other features include GbE, WiFi/BT, microSD, 2x USB 3.0, micro-USB, IR, and 40-pin GPIO. Unlike the BPI-M5, there is a 5V/3 DC input jack instead of Type-C.

Specifications listed for the Banana Pi BPI-M2 Pro include:

• Processor — Amlogic S905X3 (4x Cortex-A55 @ 1.5GHz to 2GHz); 12nm fab; Mali-G31 GPU @ up to 650MHz
• Memory/storage:
  • 2GB LPDDR4 RAM
  • 16GB eMMC (expandable to 64GB
  • MicroSD slot for up to 256GB
• Networking:
  • Gigabit Ethernet port
  • 802.11 b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 4.2 (Realtek RTL8821CU)
• Other I/O:
  • HDMI 2.1 port for up to 4K@60Hz with audio, HDR, CEC, EDID
  • 2x USB 3.0 host ports
  • Micro-USB port
  • Serial debug header
  • 40-pin GPIO header (28x GPIO with support for UART, I2C, SPI or PWM plus 5V, 3.3V, GND)
• Other features — IR receiver; 2x LEDs; SW key
• Power — 5V/3 DC input jack; power, reset, and boot switches
• Dimensions – 65 x 65mm
• Weight — 58 g
• Operating system — Android, Linux

Further information

The Banana Pi BPI-M2 Pro is available on AlliExpress for $61 plus shipping with 2GB RAM, 16GB eMMC, and WiFi/BT. More information may be found on the BPI-M2 Pro wiki.