Last Updated on April 13, 2023 by pg@petergamma.org
- Are small form factor single board computers modified Android phones? We reviewed several of these devices which have the size of the Rasperry Pi zero.
- The motivation for us to look for a small form factor single board computer is to replace Android phones by a platform which is more open for development.
- The Radxa zero for instance is powerful, it secifications are similar to the Pinephone Pro.
- We have an demo with Android 9 demo from Explaining Computers see below:
- But who buys a single board computer to replace it’s Android phone to run Android again on his SBC?
- A Twister OS armbian Focal Beta 4 Linux distro demo is also shown.
- Explaining computers struggled to get this Linux distro running.
- It shows how Libre Office starts on Twister OS armbian Focal Beta 4.
- This is a first step, but how is it about pairing a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard? With the Mango Pi MQ pro and quat, this seemed not to work out of the box.
- The demo shows also GIMP, but we had such a demo also for the Pinephone.
- Video playback is quiet smooth without optimization.
Issue software support
- Radxa Rock 4 has amazing software support, but where is the software support for the Radxa zero?
- In mid September 2021 software support for the Radxa zero is still at a very early stage.
- And now, in April 2023 has it become better?
- Another demo we found is the following with Kali Linux with game emulations:
The reviewer in the above video gives us a warning at the beginning of the video: “beware you are approaching the future. And it is ARM Linux based”. This warning should be taken seriously. The future is not now. And when will this future come, a future where we have a community of users who is happy with ARM Linux based SBC’s?
- Does this device allow thinks as can be done for instance with an Orangi Pi5 running armbian?
- The situation with these small form factors reminds us at it was with the Pinephone.
- There were are a large number of demos.
- But none of those could convince us to choose the device.
- There is an armbian image available for the Radxa zero:
- but no community who uses it:
https://forum.armbian.com/forum/113-radxa-zero/
- we have also some information about the Radxa Zero: What images I’ve tried so far and what has and hasn’t worked:
What we miss with the Radxa zero is a community who uses the device and is happy with it. Where is this community? There are so many devices which are similar to this device. Are there some hidden happy users for each device somewhere, and we don’t know about it? Eventually the persons who developed the device for themselves?