Orange Pi 800 Keyboard Computer

Looks like the Raspberry Pi 400's brother. Has almost identical ports and features. But the rk3399 chip in the Orange Pi 800 is a lot snappier in action. And the 64 GB of onboard EMMC storage means the system is much more responsive than one that has to load programs and data from a micro SD card. No fans, so no fan noise, but the passive cooling works fine.SUPER COMPUTER (the good stuff): a fast rk3399-based CPU. 64GB of EMMC, and it comes pre-loaded with an Ubuntu-based Linux system with an XFCE desktop. Full-size HDMI video out. 2x USB 3.0 and 1x USB 2.0.ETCH-A-SKETCH (the bad and the ugly): only 26 GPIO pins, so forget about using many of those Pi HATS from your Raspberry Pi. Documentation not a long suit. Only one HDMI port. The second video port is VGA! Really, guys!?BOTTOM LINE: I really like it. Priced only slightly higher than the Raspberry Pi 400 list price, but with much better performance. And you can actually get one, without all the price-gouging of the Raspberry Pi scalpers. NOTE: The Raspberry Pi price-gouging is by 3rd party scalpers. Authorized dealers, when they can get stock, sell it at the regular list price.I think a community may well grow up around the "OPI 800" and the Orange Pi 4LTS upon which it seems to be based. That would definitely be a good thing. There is plenty of room for lots of kinds of pi out there without worrying about saturating the market. Just ask Marie Calendar and Mrs Smith.

I have purchased Orange PI for my father to explore small Linux platform. Product was delivered well packaged, has most components need and a Ubuntu like image ready to use. A small power supply is used to power up the Orange PI via a USB port. There are USB-C and HDMI connectors for a mouse and external display and they should work with the ones you already have at home. (not sure if it can drive a 4K display UHD TV at 2160p). Last, it has a GPIO port for external controllers and device like most PI do. I believe this one is mostly used by regular PI consumers and while a computer in a keyboard like the Orange PI will not be installed stand alone as a controller, it will help desktop testing, prototyping and maybe some new applications.My father ran some DB operations to compare with his desktop machine, felt impressed and it performed similar. He used some of usual Linux apps and like its responsiveness. As an arm64 computer in a small form factor with the keyboard, it seems a fun machine to play with, test software on the platform with low cost and I wonder if they could be good cost x benefit for schools in underserved communities.

I don't know how this unit gets so many good reviews?The sound coming out of this unit is extremely weak, and barely audible even through headphones or speakers plugged into the microphone jack. The only way to get decent sound is through bluetooth but not all my bluetooth headsets would work.More concerning is that the Orange PI OS it comes with is extremely clunky and other distros available are extremely finnicky and/or non-functional.I thought I could get a better user experience by installing one of the other distributions on the Orange Pi 800 official website, but the distribution of Manjaro they packaged is viritually non-functional. To install it I had to wipe the EMMC, and running updates for the first time crashed the system.From what I've been seeing in forums, a lot of people are having a hard time getting any use out of these. The form factor and idea is very appealing but I realize now that at $150 this was an expensive toy that is unstable and unsupported.I would have been far better off purchasing one of the dozens of Mini PC's out there for a few hundred dollars and installing Linux on a real system.

Easy setup fairly fast for only 4GBs Ram. just remember this is an ARM Based SBC so no suport for the apps windows users are used to

Works nice

Can't wait to see the next generation of these! Amazing performance, sound is decent. For the Price its a NO brainer! Can Play moderate games and handle workday functions with easy! Besides the Orange Pi desktop picture the UI is Smooth, Responsive and Crisp! A+

Great Orange flavored Ubuntu OS and runs fast. Great device.

Minor configuration work, after a software upgrade, to get sound through HDMI, but customer forum had the needed clues.