Introducing the Tinker Board, a Raspberry Pi rival that plays 4K video

It looks like ASUS is about to give Raspberry Pi a run for its money. The Taiwanese manufacturer quietly released its own single-board computer, the Asus 90MB0QY1-M0EAY0 Tinker Board, to rival the popular British company, and so far, the little thing is a wonderful beast.

The Tinker Board includes 2 GB of RAM, gigabit Ethernet, and the latest generation of SDIO for add-on boards. Image source: Hexus.

While the new board on the block closely follows the Raspberry Pi’s form factor, it packs a much faster quad-core Rockchip processor that supports 4K video and 24-bit audio. So, be aware that this might be your ideal hardware if you’re building your own mini media center.

Additionally, the device, which is about the same size as the Pi, is equipped with a 40-pin internal header with 28 GPIO pins, meaning you can use the tiny computer to create Internet of Things gadgets. The board sports other perks that you don't typically see on these kinds of boards, including 2 GB of RAM (which is twice as much as the Pi), gigabit Ethernet, and the latest generation of SDIO for add-on boards. 

A close-up of the Tinker Board and all its working parts. Image source: Hexus.

With a price tag of about $68, ASUS’ micro-computer is almost two-fold the price of the Raspberry Pi 3. The Taiwanese manufacturer is quick to point out that the additional power that its chip packs will make up for the extra cash you’d be throwing down.

But the big question is software. Like its Pi competitor, the Tinker Board runs on a variant of Debian Linux and supports Kodi for around-the-home media streaming. Hexus reports that there are plans to expand the current OS support with the likes of Ubuntu and openSUSE. Although ASUS doesn’t have the Pi’s years of developer support and loyal fans behind it, it seems that you will be able to accomplish more overall — you just won’t have as much help getting started.

Tinker Board specs:

• Quad core 1.8-GHz ARM Cortex-A17 CPU
• 2-GB dual-channel LPDDR3 memory
• 1x HDMI 2.0 port to support 4K resolution
• Gigabit LAN and Bluetooth 4.0
• 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi
• Power supply: 5-V/2-A Micro USB (not included)

Since Raspberry Pi launched five years ago, the single-board computer market has been on the rise. With competitors such as Banana Pi and C.H.I.P. in the running, ASUS isn’t the only company to rival the reign of the Raspberry Pi. But, by the looks of it, it’s certainly one that has the resources to shake up the market in a big way.