It was only last month that the Raspberry Pi Foundation released its latest single-board computer in the form of the $10 Raspberry Pi Zero W. It includes wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.1 to an already very capable board, and all for the cost of a couple of good coffees. However, it didn't take long for the competition to respond.
The board you see pictured above is the Orange Pi 2G-IOT. Just like the Pi Zero W it offers wireless LAN, Bluetooth, and costs $10. But there's a surprising extra feature, which the Raspberry Pi Foundation has yet to include on any of its boards: a cellular modem.
It's only a 2G module, but it includes support for GSM/GPRS/EDGE so data transfers could theoretically hit 1Mbit/s, but realistically tops out at 500kb/s in practice. And to support 2G, the base of the board includes a slot for the required SIM card.
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According to CNXSoft, the board uses a 1GHz ARM Cortex A5 processor including a Vivante GC860 3D GPU and is supported by 256MB DDR2 RAM. There's also 500MB of on-board flash storage and the ability to expand that using a micro SD card. It can cope with display resolutions up to 2,560-by-1,440 (but there's only an LCD connector to use, no HDMI), WiFi 802.11 b/g/n is supported, and Bluetooth 2.1 (not 4.1 like the Pi Zero W) is included.
The board is already available to buy on AliExpress for $9.90 plus shipping, which brings the total price to $13.49. Anyone considering a purchase should be aware that no Linux distributions are officially available for the new board just yet, although a version of Ubuntu is expected and Android is supported.
As to what the Orange Pi 2G-IOT is good for, the inclusion of a 2G module means it could be deployed remotely and then communicated with over a cellular network. Power is supplied via a 5V micro USB port, so there's nothing to stop a battery or solar panels being used to keep it running. The IOT in the name also suggests this is a great test board for anyone experimenting with an Internet of Things device idea.