Banana Pi Review
Here is a closer view of the front of a Banana Pi:
(click on image for a larger version)
Here is the back of a Banana Pi:
(click on image for a larger version)
Here you can see that the Banana is slightly larger, and the GPIO connector and video connector have moved:
Feature Comparison
I thought it would be useful to generate a table of the similarities – and differences – between the Banana Pi and Raspberry Pi Model A / B / B+
| Banana Pi | Rpi Model A | Rpi Model B | Rpi Model B+ | |
| Processor | Allwinner A20 | BCM2835 | BCM2835 | BCM2835 |
| ARM version | ARMv7 | ARMv6 | ARMv6 | ARMv6 |
| Cores | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Clock Speed | 912MHz* | 700Mhz | 700Mhz | 700Mhz |
| BogoMips | 3824 | 698 | 698 | 698 |
| GPU | Mali 400 | VideoCore IV | VideoCore IV | VideoCore IV |
| Video HW Decode | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Memory Size | 1GB | 256MB | 512MB | 512MB |
| Memory Type | DDR3 | SDRAM | SDRAM | SDRAM |
| Memory Speed | 432 | 400 | 400 | 400 |
| GPIO pins | 26+10 | 26+8 | 26+8 | 40 |
| I2C | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| SPI | 1/2CS | 1/2CS | 1/2CS | 1/2CS |
| UART | 4* | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Camera Flex Socket | Parallel* | CSI | CSI | CSI |
| LCD Flex Socket | LVDS | DSI | DSI | DSI |
| Ethernet | 10/100/1000* | – | 10/100 | 10/100 |
| Controller | Allwinner A20 | – | LAN9512 | LAN9514 |
| Storage | SD | SD | SD | uSD |
| HDMI out | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Video out | YES | YES | YES | * |
| 3.5mm audio out | YES | YES | YES | YES w/video |
| SATA | YES | – | – | – |
| USB Host | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| USB OTG | 1 | – | – | – |
| RTC | YES | – | – | – |
| Microphone | YES | – | – | – |
| IR sensor | YES | – | – | – |
| Power Button | YES | – | – | – |
| Reset Button | YES | – | – | header |
| Uboot Button | YES | – | – | – |
| Power connector | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Mounting holes | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Size | 92mm*60mm | 85mm*56mm | 85mm*56mm | 85mm*56mm |
| MSRP | $50.00 | $25.00 | $35.00 | $35.00 |
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Banana Pi Notes:
- default clock is 912MHz, rated to 1GHz – easy to over clock
- dual core
- twice the memory
- approx 500Mbps reported as max throughput for Ethernet, my tests ran between 500-700Mbps
- robbedoes posted some Ethernet tuning tips, however I have not tried them yet
- SATA interface is a huge advantage
- Camera and Display connectors are NOT Raspberry Pi compatible
- Display connector appears to support less expensive LCD panels
- alternate pin functions allow up to four serial ports
- no USB OTG support in Raspbian so far
Here is a look at the LCD connector:
(click on image for a larger version)
Raspberry Pi Notes:
- CSI camera interface for the Raspberry Pi appears to be significantly superior to the Banana Pi
The table above makes it pretty clear that feature wise the Banana Pi is quite different from the Raspberry Pi, providing superior capabilities in most cases (excepting GPU and CSI).
For me, the SATA connector, RTC, double the memory and two cores are very worthwhile additions, which will appeal to power users.
Review Index
Page 1: Introduction, Does it look the same?
Page 2: Closer Look, Feature Comparison
Page 3: Operating Systems, Software Compatibility
Page 4: WiringPi, RPi.GPIO, Hardware Compatibility
Page 5: More board compatibility test results
Page 6: USB WiFi stick Compatibility, Documentation, Benchmarks
Page 7: Power Utilization, Support, Conclusion
