8.2 TOTAL SCORE

Orange Pi 3B

SBCs
Performance 7
Software support 9
Peripherals/IO 7
Build quality 8
Price 10
PROS
  • Optimized OS images
  • Onboard wireless connectivity
  • Fairly inexpensive
  • One of the cheapest boards to sport an M.2 port
CONS
  • No PWM fan control
Bottomline

The Orange Pi 3B is an SBC that can be had for as little as $30 USD. It’s a highly-polished and surprisingly fast system. With great software support and some capabilities missing from even some higher-end boards, it’s one of the most attractive entry-level SBCs of the year.

The Orange Pi team has introduced us to a new Rockchip SoC, the RK3566, by sending over an Orange Pi 3B board. The chip in question is a 64-bit ARM processor with four Cortex-A55 cores running at 1.8 GHz, and a two execution engine variant of the Mali-G52 MP1 GPU. The RK3566 also features an on-board NPU capable of 1 TOPS of INT8 performance (this if the number found in Rockchip’s official documentation – Orange Pi’s documentation claims only 0.8 TOPS). While it lacks the peripheral connectivity of the RK3568 or the sheer power of the RK3588’s octa-core setup, it’s still a decent chip, touted by Orange Pi as being capable of outperforming a Raspberry Pi 3.

photo: magazin Mehatronika

It’s clear that we’re dealing with a low-mid end SoC here, which should be pitted against the likes of one of the LibreComputer models or something like the Radxa Zero. What the board lacks in processing power, it makes up for with very attractive pricing, going for just 25/30/40 USD for 2/4/8 GB RAM models, respectively. With a relatively lesser known chip, we were curious to see how well the Orange Pi team managed to support it in software — and how much of a drop-in replacement for the Raspberry Pi 3 the Orange Pi 3B really is, due to it being marketed as such.

photo: magazin Mehatronika

Orange Pi 3B hardware

Dimension-wise, the Orange Pi 3B is virtually identical to a Raspberry Pi 3. We also see that a lot of care was put into matching the Raspberry’s port layout as closely as possible. The front side of the board houses the Gigabit Ethernet port and four USB-A ports, three of which are USB 2.0 and one of which is a USB 3.0 (or in modern terms, a USB 3.2 Gen 1) port. On the underside, centered below the USB ports is an eDP 1.3 ZIF connector.

photo: magazin Mehatronika

The right-hand side has a color-coded 40-pin GPIO connector, pin-to-pin compatible with the Raspberry Pi header, which makes connecting HATs easy. Don’t expect all HATs to be plug-and-play, though. The Orange Pi team has created a set of GPIO overlays (these are, more or less, custom GPIO mappings) for some popular ones, but software incompatibilities might still get in the way at times. Right next to the header are four mounting points for ADC2 and ADC3 analog input lines, a GND pin and a 3V3 pin, which is useful IO for interfacing with analog sensors.

photo: magazin Mehatronika

A 3.5 mm audio jack is situated along the opposite edge. Snugly behind it is a connector for an RTC battery. There’s also a 30-pin MIPI CSI camera connector. While there are kernel drivers for some third-party cameras, there’s notably no support for for official Raspberry Pi ones. We’re not quite sure that we’ve seen a Rockchip-based board yet that these work well on — which is an important thing to keep in mind if compatibility with the Raspberry Pi ecosystem is a concern.

While we’re still on the topic of cameras, it’s worth mentioning that the video encoder supports up to a single 1080p60 camera input, which is decent on such a cheap board.

Right next to the camera connector is a full-size HDMI port which supports 4K60 output. The hardware video decoder can work with H.264, H.265 and VP9 encoded files.

photo: magazin Mehatronika

Next up, we’ve got a fan header, which sadly isn’t PWM-controlled. While checking out the SoC performance under stress with s-tui, we didn’t see any thermal throttling. The chip reached 70°C with no cooling, while a very bare-bones (and somewhat bodged together) fan-and-heatsink setup got the temperatures down to 62.2°C.

However, during multicore tests in Unixbench and Geekbench 5, we did catch the chip briefly throttling down to 1.6 GHz when no cooling was provided. This made the respective scores drop very little, though. So little, in fact, that we’d consider it pretty much inconsequential under most circumstances (eg. there was a drop from around 891 to 860 points in Unixbench due to it — you can see comprehensive test scores in the graphs below).

154Single core [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 154163Single core [Orange Pi 3B] : 16398Single core [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 98204Single core [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 204134Single core [Sweet Potato] : 134483Multi core [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 483496Multi core [Orange Pi 3B] : 496258Multi core [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 258592Multi core [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 592420Multi core [Sweet Potato] : 420Geekbench 50100200300400500600Banana Pi R2 ProOrange Pi 3BRaspberry Pi 3B+Raspberry Pi 4BSweet PotatoSingle coreMulti core
928.10Dhrystone 2 [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 928.10979.30Dhrystone 2 [Orange Pi 3B] : 979.30991.40Dhrystone 2 [Orange Pi 3B + cooler] : 991.40281.80Dhrystone 2 [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 281.801403.20Dhrystone 2 [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 1403.20663.90Dhrystone 2 [Sweet Potato] : 663.90486.30DP Whetstone [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 486.30540DP Whetstone [Orange Pi 3B] : 540544.80DP Whetstone [Orange Pi 3B + cooler] : 544.80140.90DP Whetstone [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 140.90488.20DP Whetstone [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 488.20349.30DP Whetstone [Sweet Potato] : 349.30193.40Execl Throughput [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 193.40169.20Execl Throughput [Orange Pi 3B] : 169.20170.40Execl Throughput [Orange Pi 3B + cooler] : 170.4068.90Execl Throughput [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 68.90345.70Execl Throughput [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 345.70126.30Execl Throughput [Sweet Potato] : 126.30356.40File Copy 1024 [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 356.40268.60File Copy 1024 [Orange Pi 3B] : 268.60270.30File Copy 1024 [Orange Pi 3B + cooler] : 270.3096.30File Copy 1024 [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 96.30402.70File Copy 1024 [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 402.70483.20File Copy 1024 [Sweet Potato] : 483.20244File Copy 256 [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 244179.70File Copy 256 [Orange Pi 3B] : 179.70178.50File Copy 256 [Orange Pi 3B + cooler] : 178.5061.70File Copy 256 [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 61.70278.10File Copy 256 [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 278.10346.90File Copy 256 [Sweet Potato] : 346.90687.90File Copy 4096 [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 687.90556.40File Copy 4096 [Orange Pi 3B] : 556.40560.30File Copy 4096 [Orange Pi 3B + cooler] : 560.30213.80File Copy 4096 [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 213.80767.70File Copy 4096 [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 767.70830.20File Copy 4096 [Sweet Potato] : 830.20231.60Pipe Throughput [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 231.60293.40Pipe Throughput [Orange Pi 3B] : 293.40299.70Pipe Throughput [Orange Pi 3B + cooler] : 299.7027.60Pipe Throughput [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 27.60127.50Pipe Throughput [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 127.50325.20Pipe Throughput [Sweet Potato] : 325.2083.40Pipe-based CS [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 83.4057Pipe-based CS [Orange Pi 3B] : 5758.20Pipe-based CS [Orange Pi 3B + cooler] : 58.2019.80Pipe-based CS [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 19.8081Pipe-based CS [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 81113.10Pipe-based CS [Sweet Potato] : 113.10169.10Process Creation [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 169.1085.10Process Creation [Orange Pi 3B] : 85.1087.40Process Creation [Orange Pi 3B + cooler] : 87.4051.30Process Creation [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 51.30214.90Process Creation [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 214.90104Process Creation [Sweet Potato] : 104560.80Shell scripts (1) [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 560.80180.20Shell scripts (1) [Orange Pi 3B] : 180.20180.60Shell scripts (1) [Orange Pi 3B + cooler] : 180.60201.60Shell scripts (1) [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 201.60800Shell scripts (1) [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 800450.30Shell scripts (1) [Sweet Potato] : 450.301227.20Shell scripts (8) [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 1227.20546.10Shell scripts (8) [Orange Pi 3B] : 546.10545.70Shell scripts (8) [Orange Pi 3B + cooler] : 545.70481.70Shell scripts (8) [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 481.701804.60Shell scripts (8) [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 1804.60970.30Shell scripts (8) [Sweet Potato] : 970.30172.50System Call Overhead [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 172.50424.60System Call Overhead [Orange Pi 3B] : 424.60432.20System Call Overhead [Orange Pi 3B + cooler] : 432.2018.70System Call Overhead [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 18.7080.30System Call Overhead [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 80.30358.20System Call Overhead [Sweet Potato] : 358.20UNIXBENCH Singlecore02004006008001,0001,2001,4001,6001,8002,000Banana Pi R2 ProOrange Pi 3BOrange Pi 3B + coolerRaspberry Pi 3B+Raspberry Pi 4BSweet PotatoDhrystone 2DP WhetstoneExecl ThroughputFile Copy 1024File Copy 256File Copy 4096Pipe ThroughputPipe-based CSProcess CreationShell scripts (1)Shell scripts (8)System Call Overhead
3563.90Dhrystone 2 [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 3563.903547.70Dhrystone 2 [Orange Pi 3B] : 3547.703808.40Dhrystone 2 [Orange Pi 3B + cooler] : 3808.401125.60Dhrystone 2 [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 1125.605542.10Dhrystone 2 [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 5542.102608.90Dhrystone 2 [Sweet Potato] : 2608.901927.80DP Whetstone [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 1927.802048.20DP Whetstone [Orange Pi 3B] : 2048.202110.20DP Whetstone [Orange Pi 3B + cooler] : 2110.20563.10DP Whetstone [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 563.101930.50DP Whetstone [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 1930.501370.80DP Whetstone [Sweet Potato] : 1370.80561.80Execl Throughput [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 561.80509.50Execl Throughput [Orange Pi 3B] : 509.50507.70Execl Throughput [Orange Pi 3B + cooler] : 507.70242.90Execl Throughput [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 242.90988.30Execl Throughput [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 988.30432.20Execl Throughput [Sweet Potato] : 432.201378.60File Copy 1024 [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 1378.60980.30File Copy 1024 [Orange Pi 3B] : 980.301008.40File Copy 1024 [Orange Pi 3B + cooler] : 1008.40379.40File Copy 1024 [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 379.401444.30File Copy 1024 [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 1444.301863.10File Copy 1024 [Sweet Potato] : 1863.10961.20File Copy 256 [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 961.20660.60File Copy 256 [Orange Pi 3B] : 660.60765.40File Copy 256 [Orange Pi 3B + cooler] : 765.40245.40File Copy 256 [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 245.401065.40File Copy 256 [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 1065.401342.90File Copy 256 [Sweet Potato] : 1342.902155.30File Copy 4096 [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 2155.301786.50File Copy 4096 [Orange Pi 3B] : 1786.501819File Copy 4096 [Orange Pi 3B + cooler] : 1819782.30File Copy 4096 [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 782.302133.30File Copy 4096 [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 2133.302779.30File Copy 4096 [Sweet Potato] : 2779.30913.10Pipe Throughput [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 913.101087.80Pipe Throughput [Orange Pi 3B] : 1087.801154.40Pipe Throughput [Orange Pi 3B + cooler] : 1154.40110.30Pipe Throughput [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 110.30506.40Pipe Throughput [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 506.401274.30Pipe Throughput [Sweet Potato] : 1274.30411.90Pipe-based CS [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 411.90210.90Pipe-based CS [Orange Pi 3B] : 210.90215.50Pipe-based CS [Orange Pi 3B + cooler] : 215.5065.70Pipe-based CS [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 65.70238.80Pipe-based CS [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 238.80473.40Pipe-based CS [Sweet Potato] : 473.40422.90Process Creation [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 422.90317.20Process Creation [Orange Pi 3B] : 317.20325.90Process Creation [Orange Pi 3B + cooler] : 325.90175.40Process Creation [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 175.40591.30Process Creation [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 591.30327.50Process Creation [Sweet Potato] : 327.501341.10Shell scripts (1) [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 1341.10581.20Shell scripts (1) [Orange Pi 3B] : 581.20598.40Shell scripts (1) [Orange Pi 3B + cooler] : 598.40525.90Shell scripts (1) [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 525.901932.90Shell scripts (1) [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 1932.901065.60Shell scripts (1) [Sweet Potato] : 1065.601251.70Shell scripts (8) [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 1251.70591.80Shell scripts (8) [Orange Pi 3B] : 591.80614.90Shell scripts (8) [Orange Pi 3B + cooler] : 614.90491.30Shell scripts (8) [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 491.301831Shell scripts (8) [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 18311007.40Shell scripts (8) [Sweet Potato] : 1007.40683.60System Call Overhead [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 683.601548.20System Call Overhead [Orange Pi 3B] : 1548.201654.20System Call Overhead [Orange Pi 3B + cooler] : 1654.2074.80System Call Overhead [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 74.80318.60System Call Overhead [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 318.601413.40System Call Overhead [Sweet Potato] : 1413.40UNIXBENCH Multicore01,0002,0003,0004,0005,0006,000Banana Pi R2 ProOrange Pi 3BOrange Pi 3B + coolerRaspberry Pi 3B+Raspberry Pi 4BSweet PotatoDhrystone 2DP WhetstoneExecl ThroughputFile Copy 1024File Copy 256File Copy 4096Pipe ThroughputPipe-based CSProcess CreationShell scripts (1)Shell scripts (8)System Call Overhead

Along the same edge as the fan header is a USB-C power port. Along with the board itself, we received a 5V/2.5A power brick designed for it. In our tests, we never managed to get the board to draw more than 1.4 A, so we’re confident in recommending the official accessory.

Along the back edge are a power button, a UART debug header (watch out, as most Rockchip SoCs, the RK3566 included, use a weird 1.500.000 baud rate), and a MIPI DSI display port. Like the camera port, certain third-party screens are supported (the list can be found on the Orange Pi Wiki), but not the official Raspberry Pi 7” Touchscreen.

photo: magazin Mehatronika

Next to these is also a U.FL camera connector for a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth antenna. There’s an onboard Cdtech 20U5622 wireless chip, which supports Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0.

photo: magazin Mehatronika

Another important spec is the RAM, and our board features 8 GB of surprisingly speedy LPDDR4 RAM running at 2133 MHz. Samsung makes these chips, and for those playing along with home, the part number is K4UBE3D4AB-MGCL.

Benchmark-wise, the Orange Pi 3B has some of the best RAM performance we’ve seen on a board in this price range. As far as we can tell from these numbers, we’ve got a proper dual-channel memory setup here which beats even the Raspberry Pi 4.

The eMMC interface located on the bottom side of the SBC is pretty useful. It takes Orange Pi’s proprietary eMMC modules which are available in 32/64/256 GB sizes and go for a very fair 7.5, 9 and 19 USD, respectively.

The 64 GB eMMC module sent to us is based on the FORESEE FEDNN64G-A3A56 eMMC 5.1 chip, which theoretically supports 400 MB/s data transfers (it’s HS400 certified), but its real-world performance is lower, as expected. We managed to measure 143.6 MB/s read speeds, which was around seven times faster than what we measured with the system when booting off an SD card (we always benchmark card read speeds using a 64 GB Kingston CANVAS Select Plus V10).

4204.88Sysbench RAM [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 4204.884592.99Sysbench RAM [Orange Pi 3B] : 4592.991317.76Sysbench RAM [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 1317.763117.09Sysbench RAM [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 3117.093538.45Sysbench RAM [Sweet Potato S905X] : 3538.45Sysbench RAM (MiB/s)05001,0001,5002,0002,5003,0003,5004,0004,5005,000Banana Pi R2 ProOrange Pi 3BRaspberry Pi 3B+Raspberry Pi 4BSweet Potato S905XSysbench RAM
2217.40C Copy [Banana Pi M2 Pro] : 2217.403449.20C Copy [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 3449.202754.50C Copy [Orange Pi 3B] : 2754.50918.20C Copy [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 918.202679.80C Copy [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 2679.803555.30C copy backwards [Banana Pi M2 Pro] : 3555.303135.40C copy backwards [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 3135.401840.80C copy backwards [Orange Pi 3B] : 1840.80922.10C copy backwards [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 922.102715.50C copy backwards [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 2715.503442C copy pref. (32b) [Banana Pi M2 Pro] : 34423123.40C copy pref. (32b) [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 3123.402766.10C copy pref. (32b) [Orange Pi 3B] : 2766.10814.40C copy pref. (32b) [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 814.402668C copy pref. (32b) [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 26682519.30C 2-pass copy     [Banana Pi M2 Pro] : 2519.302865.10C 2-pass copy     [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 2865.102169.10C 2-pass copy     [Orange Pi 3B] : 2169.10677.20C 2-pass copy     [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 677.202245C 2-pass copy     [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 22452198.20C 2-pass cp prf [Banana Pi M2 Pro] : 2198.202934.20C 2-pass cp prf [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 2934.201616.60C 2-pass cp prf [Orange Pi 3B] : 1616.60543.70C 2-pass cp prf [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 543.702311.30C 2-pass cp prf [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 2311.306406.50C fill  [Banana Pi M2 Pro] : 6406.507332C fill  [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 73327307.20C fill  [Orange Pi 3B] : 7307.201077.30C fill  [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 1077.303300C fill  [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 33003555.30standard memcpy [Banana Pi M2 Pro] : 3555.303017standard memcpy [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 30172736.90standard memcpy [Orange Pi 3B] : 2736.90931.40standard memcpy [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 931.402689.80standard memcpy [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 2689.806412.30standard memset  [Banana Pi M2 Pro] : 6412.306235standard memset  [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 62357293.60standard memset  [Orange Pi 3B] : 7293.601076.90standard memset  [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 1076.903310.20standard memset  [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 3310.20TINYMEMBENCH TESTS (SELECTION)01,0002,0003,0004,0005,0006,0007,0008,000Banana Pi M2 ProBanana Pi R2 ProOrange Pi 3BRaspberry Pi 3B+Raspberry Pi 4BC CopyC copy backwardsC copy pref. (32b)C 2-pass copy    C 2-pass cp prfC fill standard memcpystandard memset 

The final storage interface available is an M.2 M-Key slot, which can take NVMe SSDs. However, due to the limited PCIe implementation on the RK3566, the read speeds aren’t quite up to NVMe standards. Our 250 GB Kingston NV2 drive (rated at 3,000 MB/s read) only managed to deliver a tenth of its read speed — at 304.2 MB/s.

photo: magazin Mehatronika

Software support

So far, all Orange Pi products we’ve tried have had pretty great software support and documentation. We’re happy that this seems to be the case with the company’s budget offerings too. There’s a ton of documentation and tools available for the board, all of which can be found on the Orange Pi website.

There’s a quite a few official OS images to choose from, too. Ubuntu 20.04 and 22.04 are very stable, and both Debian 11 and 12 offer a good user experience and a high level of polish. Octane 2.0, a test which heavily relies on the stability of the whole OS software stack gives the system a very respectable 2860 points.

For those needing maximum with the Raspberry Pi software ecosystem, there’s an unofficial third-party Raspberry Pi OS image available for download. It’s surprisingly a surprisingly well-optimized and lightweight operating system, as shown by its 3855 point Octane 2.0 score.

Once upon a time we used Octane as a general benchmark, but soon we noticed how unstable its results were between different OS versions. Still, while not all that useful as a hardware-only benchmark, its scores correlate surprisingly well with the “smoothness” of an OS’ operation.

We decided to try out the built-in NPU on the aforementioned Raspberry Pi OS image. Using a simple vehicle-recognition model and a 640 x 640 resolution input image, the system averaged 68 ms per frame, which translates to roughly 14 frames per second.

photo: magazin Mehatronika

Undoubtedly the best-performing OS image was Orange Pi’s own first-party Orange OS. It’s an Arch Linux-based distribution with a focus on being lightweight. The board scored 4743 points on Octane 2.0 using this distro, which is a very impressive result.

4586Octane 2.0 [BPi-R2 Pro] : 45864743Octane 2.0 [Orange Pi 3B] : 47431391Octane 2.0 [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 13918243Octane 2.0 [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 82432931Octane 2.0 [Sweet Potato S905X] : 2931OCTANE 2.001,0002,0003,0004,0005,0006,0007,0008,0009,000BPi-R2 ProOrange Pi 3BRaspberry Pi 3B+Raspberry Pi 4BSweet Potato S905X

Just to see if there were any more performance benefits when using Orange OS, we repeated some of the tests on it, with our active cooling setup.

339.69Single core [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 339.69370.45Single core [Orange Pi 3B] : 370.45115.67Single core [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 115.67583.14Single core [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 583.14278.29Single core [Sweet Potato S905X] : 278.291349.96Multi core [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 1349.961466.15Multi core [Orange Pi 3B] : 1466.15462.42Multi core [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 462.422305.72Multi core [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 2305.721087.78Multi core [Sweet Potato S905X] : 1087.78Sysbench CPU05001,0001,5002,000Banana Pi R2 ProOrange Pi 3BRaspberry Pi 3B+Raspberry Pi 4BSweet Potato S905XSingle coreMulti core
798459.72aes-256-cbc [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 798459.72865124.35aes-256-cbc [Orange Pi 3B] : 865124.3513309.95aes-256-cbc [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 13309.9530168.41aes-256-cbc [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 30168.41660209.43aes-256-cbc [Sweet Potato S905X] : 660209.43755285.96aes-256-gcm [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 755285.96818849.31aes-256-gcm [Orange Pi 3B] : 818849.3119529.29aes-256-gcm [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 19529.2949425.07aes-256-gcm [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 49425.07600349.15aes-256-gcm [Sweet Potato S905X] : 600349.15766853.39sha1 [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 766853.39822553.26sha1 [Orange Pi 3B] : 822553.2672533.45sha1 [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 72533.45191868.15sha1 [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 191868.15617748.23sha1 [Sweet Potato S905X] : 617748.23720162.86sha256 [Banana Pi R2 Pro] : 720162.86780196.22sha256 [Orange Pi 3B] : 780196.2238360.41sha256 [Raspberry Pi 3B+] : 38360.41142540.80sha256 [Raspberry Pi 4B] : 142540.80594980.30sha256 [Sweet Potato S905X] : 594980.30openssl test0100,000200,000300,000400,000500,000600,000700,000800,000900,000Banana Pi R2 ProOrange Pi 3BRaspberry Pi 3B+Raspberry Pi 4BSweet Potato S905Xaes-256-cbcaes-256-gcmsha1sha256

Finally, Android 11 is also available for the board. It can be installed onto an eMMC module, or even flashed to a sufficiently fast SD card provided that its bootloader gets placed into the onboard SPI NAND Flash. Android installation is a somewhat more involved procedure, but detailed instructions are provided on the Orange Pi website.

Conclusion

The Orange Pi 3B is a budget SBC. For only $30 it offers a surprisingly streamlined and well-optimized system which is quite pleasant to use. As a Raspberry Pi 3 replacement it delivers, offering more sheer processing power, actual cryptographic acceleration and a very basic, but useable NPU. The Orange Pi 3B is perfectly suited as a small IoT edge node or a home automation server. Android supports makes it viable for digital signage or as a media server — or even as a tiny retro gaming box.

With all of this said, the Orange Pi 3B currently might just be the most capable low-cost SBC on the market.

Aleksandar Dakić
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