It seems that for its latest board, OrangePi 5 Plus, the Orange Pi team are moving to the RK3588 SoC as the heart of the board. As spotted by CNX Software, this new board boasts a beefier SoC that features many more IO pins than the cheaper RK3588S. The Orange Pi 5 Plus delivers a few more features, including multiple RAM options, and NVMe storage.
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Orange Pi 5 Plus Specifications
SoC
Rockchip RK3588
Row 0 - Cell 2
CPU
4 x Cortex-A76 cores up to 2.4 GHz
Row 1 - Cell 2
Row 2 - Cell 0
4 x Cortex-A55 cores up to 1.8 GHz
Row 2 - Cell 2
GPU
Arm Mali-G610 MP4
Row 3 - Cell 2
RAM
4/8/16GB LPDDR4
Row 4 - Cell 2
Storage
eMMC socket (32/64/128 or 256GB)
Row 5 - Cell 2
Row 6 - Cell 0
M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe (M Key)
Row 6 - Cell 2
Row 7 - Cell 0
MicroSD card
Row 7 - Cell 2
Row 8 - Cell 0
16/32MB QSPI NOR Flash
Row 8 - Cell 2
Networking
2 x 2.5Gb Ethernet
Row 9 - Cell 2
Row 10 - Cell 0
Optional Wi-Fi / Bluetooth via M.2 E Key 2230
Row 10 - Cell 2
Video
2 x HDMI 2.1 Output (8K60)
Row 11 - Cell 2
Row 12 - Cell 0
1 x HDMI Input (4K60)
Row 12 - Cell 2
Row 13 - Cell 0
DisplayPort 1.4 (8K30) via USB C
Row 13 - Cell 2
Row 14 - Cell 0
MIPI DSI
Row 14 - Cell 2
Audio
3.5mm Mic / headphone jack
Row 15 - Cell 2
Row 16 - Cell 0
Onboard Microphone
Row 16 - Cell 2
USB
2 x USB 3.0, 1 x USB 3.1
Row 17 - Cell 2
Row 18 - Cell 0
USB C, 2 x USB 2.0
Row 18 - Cell 2
GPIO
40 pin GPIO
Row 19 - Cell 2
Row 20 - Cell 0
UART, I2C, SPI, CAN, I2S, PDM, AUDDSM, SDIO, PWM
Row 20 - Cell 2
Row 21 - Cell 0
IR Receiver
Row 21 - Cell 2
Row 22 - Cell 0
Fan header
Row 22 - Cell 2
Power
5V at 4A via USB C
Row 23 - Cell 2
Dimensions
100 x 70mm
Row 24 - Cell 2
The most noticeable additions are two 2.5Gb Ethernet ports (putting the Orange Pi 5 Plus in overpowered DIY router territory) and three HDMI ports. Two of the HDMI 2.1 ports support 8K60 output, while the third HDMI port is an input, able to capture up to 4K60 (a similar premise to the Khadas VIM4). The dual HDMI 2.1 ports means that we can connect a couple of 4K screens and enjoy an expansive work environment. As for networking, if the two 2.5Gb Ethernet ports aren't to your liking, then Wi-Fi is an optional extra. It's a shame that it wasn't included as that would have been the icing on the cake, but costs have to be cut in order to squeeze in an RK3588 over the lower-cost RK3588S.
Under the hood, we have multiple RAM options, from 4 to 16GB of LPDDR4. This matches the latter tiers of Raspberry Pi 4, and exceeds it with the 16GB model (unless you have the guts and soldering iron to hack your own?). The octa-core CPU is made up of four Arm Cortex-A76 cores at up to 2.4 GHz and four Arm Cortex-A55 cores at up to 1.8 GHz. This gives the Orange Pi 5 Plus more power than the Raspberry Pi 4, and for around the same (artificially inflated) price.
A 40-pin GPIO is present on the short edge of the board, and right now we do not know what the pinout will be. In the past, many Raspberry Pi alternatives have used the 40-pin layout, but none have successfully managed to work correctly with the best Raspberry Pi HATs. Sometimes it is down to software support, other times hardware.
Onboard storage has seen the removal of eMMC flash, although this can be purchased separately. Instead, we have space for an NVMe 2280 SSD drive (the Orange Pi 5 has a 2242 slot) with speeds of up to 2,000 MB/s. The rather average speed means that most of the best SSDs will be more than up for the task. If you don't need the speed, then a micro SD card can be used to boot your choice of OS.
Operating system support boils down to Orange Pi OS, Ubuntu, Debian and Android 12.
Prices start from $89 for the 4GB model, $109 for 8GB and $129 for 16GB and according to CNX Software the boards will be on sale next week, May 15 onwards.
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Les Pounder is an associate editor at Tom's Hardware. He is a creative technologist and for seven years has created projects to educate and inspire minds both young and old. He has worked with the Raspberry Pi Foundation to write and deliver their teacher training program "Picademy".
we have space for an NVMe 2280 SSD drive (the Orange Pi 5 has a 2242 slot) with speeds of up to 2,000 MB/s.
Uh, if the specs are really PCIe 3.0 x4, then it should be nearly 4 GB/s! Even if it were only 2 GB/s, that's still an order of magnitude faster than you can get with the Pi 4, and completely fine, considering the CPU speed (think Sandybridge i7-tier). In fact, in the Sandybridge days, you'd be happy just to get 0.5 GB/s from a SATA-3 SSD.
Operating system support boils down to Orange Pi OS, Ubuntu, Debian and Android 12.
I would recommend people take a good, long look at Armbian. It might not be officially supported, but it should have way better hardware support for things like the GPU and video decoder. I've run an officially-supported Ubuntu distro on an Amlogic-based SBC that's been around for 3-4 years, and it still doesn't have proper 3D or video decode support! And, unless Orange Pi OS is a fork of Armbian, I wouldn't count on it being much better.
Of course, Android should have the best support for its hardware, but Android is so locked-down these days, that it seems really unsuitable for most of the things people probably want to do on a device like this.
Wow! The real killer is the pricing:
"$109 for 8GB and $129 for 16GB"
That's hardly more than the regular Orange Pi 5! If that's what it actually sells for, they really knocked this one out of the park!
Article correction, you listed 2280, that is one 100% 2230 based on the footprint and diagram.
I think you're confusing the one on top with the one underneath. The top-side has a 2230, but there's a 2280 on the bottom. Check the source link at cnx-software.com, for more details:
https://www.cnx-software.com/2023/05/10/orange-pi-5-plus-sbc-switches-to-rockchip-rk3588-soc-brings-dual-hdmi-2-1-dual-2-5gbe-m-2-pcie-sockets/
I think you're confusing the one on top with the one underneath. The top-side has a 2230, but there's a 2280 on the bottom. Check the source link at cnx-software.com, for more details:
https://www.cnx-software.com/2023/05/10/orange-pi-5-plus-sbc-switches-to-rockchip-rk3588-soc-brings-dual-hdmi-2-1-dual-2-5gbe-m-2-pcie-sockets/
I'll show myself out. I completely missed the one on the underside. Derp da derp derp 🤡
