The Orange Pi Zero 2W is the latest development from the Chinese group Shenzhen Xunlong, perhaps the one that most single motherboard (SBC) computers sell on the planet after Raspberry Pi.

Shenzhen is copying every single development that the British foundation makes and has cool stuff on the market like a complete computer included in the keyboard (Pi 800). As for the SBC, it has boards like the Orange Pi 5 that improve the performance and connectivity of Raspberries. Now it was decided to compete with the Pi Zero with the same premises.

Orange Pi Zero 2W and very low consumption

In credit card size (65 x 30 mm) and with the super-reduced consumption of those ‘2W’, the Chinese manufacturer is betting on a SoC that significantly improves the performance of its Anglo-Saxon counterpart. It is an Allwinner H618 with a 1.5 GHz, 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU and an integrated Mali-G31 MP2 graphics card.

It can equip up to 8 times more memory than the Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, with options for 1, 2 and 4 GB. The ports are also improved, from USB Type A to modern Type C for data or for powering with 5V/2A power adapters. It has a microSD card reader for storage and a 40-pin GPIO header compatible with Raspberry Pi.

The board is equipped with a micro HDMI 2.0 port for audio and video output and supports Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 wireless standards. For those who need more, and for just $5, Shenzhen sells a small add-on expansion board with a 10/100 Ethernet connector, two USB-A ports, a 3.5mm audio jack, an infrared receiver, and three buttons, one for on/off . switch and the other two can be customized by the user.

Orange Pi Zero 2W is sold on Aliexpress at a price that everyone can pay: 14 euros for the version with 1 GB and 26 euros for the one with 4 GB of memory. It supports a wide range of operating systems including Android, Debian or Ubuntu and can be used in dozens of different projects, especially those that require the lowest SBC consumption.