Difference Between Raspberry Pi vs Banana Pi
Raspberry Pi is a series of small single-board computers, with a low cost that can plug into a computer monitor or TV and uses a standard keyboard and mouse. It is developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation to promote basic computer science teaching in schools. It does not include peripherals like a keyboard etc., but some accessories have been included in many official and unofficial bundles. Banana pi, a competitor of Raspberry Pi, is a new single-board computer with a much faster processor and RAM power. Raspberry Pi highly influences the hardware design of Banana Pi. Thus, Banana Pi is compatible with Raspberry Pi boards. It can also run on various operating systems like Raspbian, NetBSD, Android, Debian etc. It uses Allwinner SoC (System on a chip) and covered by a Linux-sunxi port.
What is Raspberry Pi?
- Raspberry Pi is a capable little device that would enable people from all walks of life to explore computer science and to learn how to program in languages like Python. It is supposed to do everything you would expect from a desktop computer to do, ranging from browsing the internet and playing definition video, making spreadsheets, word processing, and playing games. Raspberry Pi has a small size and accessible price; thus, it was quickly adopted by computer enthusiasts for a project which requires more than a basic microcontroller.
- Although Raspberry Pi is slower than a modern laptop or desktop, it is still a complete Linux computer that can provide all expected functionalities at a low-power consumption level. The foundation behind Raspberry Pi is a registered educational charity based in the UK whose aim is to advance the education of children in the field of computer science and related subjects. Raspberry Pi was designed for the Linux operating system, and many Linux distributions have a version optimized for Raspberry Pi.
- Two of the most popular is Raspbian, based on the Debian operating system and Pidora, based on the Fedora operating system. A good practice to select the operating system for Raspberry Pi would be the one that most closely resembles an operating system user is familiar with, in either desktop or server environment.
What is Banana pi?
- Banana pi provides an open-source hardware platform that was produced to run Elastos.org’s open-source operating system. It is a dual-core Android 4.2 product that is better than Raspberry Pi. It is highly efficient with several Linux distributions in the market like Debian, Ubuntu, OpenSuse and images that run on Raspberry Pi and Cubieboard. It consists of a Gigabit Ethernet port and a SATA socket. The size of Banana pi M1 is about the same size as a credit card. It has the potential to run the games smoothly as it supports 1080P high definition video output.
- The GPIO is compatible with Raspberry Pi, and it can run Raspberry Pi images directly. Several versions of Banana pi are available in the market like Banana pi M1, Banana pi M+, Banana pi Pro, Banana pi G1, etc. All versions come along with the enhanced capabilities like operating system support, available RAM, GPIO capabilities. Banana Pi is affordable with extensible configurations. Its high performance is driven by Allwinner SoC and 1 GB DDR3 SDRAM. It is highly versatile and compatible with the Raspberry pi image. It is for everyone who wants to play and create with computer technologies instead of simply being a user of electronics.
Head To Head Comparison Between Raspberry Pi and Banana Pi
Below are the top differences between Raspberry Pi vs Banana Pi
Key Difference between Raspberry Pi and Banana Pi
The Key Differences Between Raspberry Pi vs Banana Pi are explained in the below-mentioned points:
- Raspberry Pi depends on MicroSD and USB for storage, whereas Banana pi is fitted with a SATA port, which allows a faster option for connecting mass storage devices like hard drives.
- Video processor in Raspberry Pi is more advanced than Mail GPU in the Banana Pi; anyone planning on using HDMI out for media streaming Raspberry might be a better option.
- Raspberry Pi has the largest following of any single-board computer, whereas Banana Pi is ranked way below Raspberry pi in the following index.
- The number of guides and tutorials available, including software available for Raspberry Pi, is innumerable, whereas Banana pi’s guides and tutorials are limited in number as compared to Raspberry Pi.
- Raspberry Pi model 3 has on onboard 2.4 GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi which works out of the box, whereas Banana pi, most models have onboard Wi-Fi.
- Software support for Raspberry Pi is excellent, whereas Banana Pi has limited software support and not at par with Raspberry standard.
- Despite having Google support, Raspberry Pi is facing some problems to become fully Android compatible, whereas Banana pi is perfectly supportive of the Android operating system.
- Raspberry Pi 3 comes with a quad-core processor with 1 GB RAM, whereas Banana pi M3 has an octa-core processor with 2GB RAM.
- Raspberry Pi 3 has four USB connectivity ports, whereas Banana pi M3 has only three USB ports, among which one is used for OTG connection.
- Raspberry Pi 3 uses an external Micro SD card for storing the operating system and the other data, whereas Banana pi M3 has 8 GB eMMC onboard storage.
Raspberry Pi vs Banana Pi Comparison Table
Below is the topmost Comparison
| The Basis Of Comparison | Raspberry pi | Banana Pi |
| Processor | ARM Cortex A7-900 MHz – quad-core | Allwinner A20 – Cortex A7 -1 GHz – dual-core |
| RAM | 1 GB LPDDR2 | 1 GB DDR3 |
| USB | 4 x USB 2.0 | 2 x USB 2.0, 2 x MicroUSB |
| GPIO | 40 pin expansion header | 26 pin expansion header |
| Network | 1 x 10/100 Ethernet | 1 x 10/100/1000 Ethernet |
| Dimensions | 85.6 x 56 x 21 (mm) | 92 x 60 (mm) |
| Audio | 3.5 mm | 3.5 mm, on-board microphone input |
| Video | 1 x HDMI – 1.3 or 1.4 | 1 x HDMI, 1 x composite |
Conclusion
Raspberry pi ‘s design is revolving around its budget-friendliness and ease of use, which is the prime reason for its huge demand in the market. Widespread support of other software only compounds the usefulness of the device, with lots of information about writing and compiling software, hardware built for Raspberry Pi. While the same information also exists for Banana pi, it is not nearly as common, which is tricky since Banana Pi is harder to set up than Raspberry Pi.
Anyone who is used to the quality of Raspberry Pi might not be very impressed with Banana pi ‘s look and feel at first glance. Since the CPU generates the heat of any components, a user needs to take its location into account when building it into projects or putting together a case for it. At the same time, Banana Pi has a notable improvement over the older versions of Raspberry Pi, but still, the newer hardware revision renders the performance boost mostly negligible. Also, Banana Pi’s lack of support, with a higher price tag, makes it hard to recommend over Raspberry Pi Model B.
But if someone has priorities like built-in Wi-Fi or mass storage through SATA, Banana pi would be an ideal option. However, both Raspberry Pi vs Banana Pi features can also be set up on Raspberry Pi without much trouble. At the end of this Raspberry Pi vs Banana Pi article, it’s requirement and price tag, which really matters.
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