The Raspberry Pi is the defacto standard for Single Board Computers (SBC) and has spawned many alternative boards since it was released in 2012. One of those is Banana Pi and their latest board, BPI-M5 offers the power of the Raspberry Pi 4 with onboard eMMC flash storage.
As found by CNX Software, the Banana Pi BPI-M5 has at its heart an Amlogic S905X3 System on Chip which features an Arm Cortex-A55 processor running at 2 GHz and a Mali-G31 MP2 GPU running at 650 MHz. RAM comes in the form of a single chip of 4GB of LPDDR4, so mid-range when compared to the three memory options for the Raspberry Pi 4. What is most welcome is 16GB of eMMC flash storage soldered to the board, with options available for models featuring up to 64GB of eMMC. Onboard eMMC storage is much faster and more reliable than micro SD cards, it also frees up the micro SD slot for additional storage. Four USB 3.0 ports provided plenty of connectivity and a single full size HDMI 2.1 port offers up to 4Kp60 video output.
| CPU | Amlogic S905X3 Quad-Core Cortex-A55 (2.0 GHz) |
| GPU | Mali-G31 MP2 GPU with 4 x Execution Engines (650 Mhz) |
| Memory | 4 GB LPDDR4 |
| Storage | MicroSD slot with support for up to 256GB expansion and 16GB eMMC flash with support for up to 64GB |
| Network | 10/100/1000 Mbit/s Ethernet |
| Video Output(s) | 1 x HDMI 2.0 (up to 4K@60Hz with HDR, CEC, EDID) |
| Audio Output(s) | 3.5mm jack and 1 x HDMI digital output |
| USB ports | USB 3.0 PORT (x4) |
| GPIO | 40 Pin Header : GPIO (x28) and Power (+5V, +3.3V and GND). GPIO pins can be used for UART, I2C, SPI or PWM |
| Switches | Reset, Power and U-boot |
| LED | Power Status and Activity status |
| Power Source | 5 Volt @3A via USB Type C |
| Dimenasions | 3.6 x 2.4 Inches (92x60mm) |
| Weight | 48g |
| OS | Android and Linux |
Software support will be provided via versions of Android and Linux but nothing more is known at this time, including the price. If it were to be released at a lower price point than the Raspberry Pi 4 4GB, then it could be a viable option for some. But with the Raspberry Pi 4 now coming with 8GB RAM and USB booting, it will be hard for alternative boards to gain an advantage
