NanoPi M5: Raspberry Pi competitor has up to 16GB RAM, supports NVMe SSD and 4K monitor

FriendlyELEC has added another single-board computer to its lineup. The NanoPi M5 measures 3.54 x 2.44 inches and also available with a suitable case. This little computer is powered by the Rockchip RK3576 SoC with four Cortex-A72, four Cortex-A53 cores and clock speeds of up to 2.2GHz and 2.0GHz, respectively. It also sports 4GB, 8GB or 16GB of memory. The highest configuration should be more than suitable for most SBC use cases. That being said, there’s no built-in mass storage, but an M.2 2280 NVMe SSD can be connected via a single PCIe 2.1 lane. As usual for single-board computers, SD cards are also supported.

In terms of network connectivity, the NanoPi M5 comes with two Gigabit Ethernet ports. WiFi and Bluetooth are no onboard, but these features can be added with a corresponding M.2 module. An NPU is integrated into the SoC and offers an INT8 performance of 6 TOPS. Meanwhile, 4K 60Hz monitors can be hooked up via HDMI 2.0, but MIPI DSI is also available as an alternative. The latter is often used for displays that can be built into certain setups and devices based on this SBC. For sensors and actuators, a 30-pin header supporting I2C, UART, and PWM is available. Last but not least, the Raspberry Pi alternative is powered by USB Type-C and can be connected to a 5V fan. FriendlyELEC sells the new single-board computer for prices starting at $55, the 16GB RAM version costs $30 more. Prospective buyers should thoroughly review the shipping terms before placing their order.

Possible alternative: Check out the Raspberry Pi 5 (16GB) on Amazon