Banana Pi Vs Raspberry Pi: What’s the Difference (Benchmark & Review)

Banana Pi is surely one of the top Raspberry Pi alternatives. Both single board computers are having credit-card size, come in various models, and provide a tremendous capability to finish different electronics projects. But, when it is the matter of choosing one among them, then which is better to have? Let’s find it out here.

Banana Pi Vs Raspberry Pi

When you need a combination of a simple, affordable, small-sized, and powerful circuit board, then there are only some limited options available. So, sometimes the task of picking up the right board becomes a bit more confusing, especially when there is a competition to the Raspberry Pi device. We will see some brief info about both the Banana Pi and Raspberry Pi and then decide which the better SBC for your project is.

Banana Pi

With the influence of Raspberry Pi 3 in 2013, the China-based company Shenzhen SINOVOIP Corporation Limited designed a low-cost, compact-sized series of SBCs called as Banana Pi. The initial purpose was to provide a learning platform for learning Scratch even with low hardware and software availabilities. The Banana Pi can run Android, Linux, Ubuntu, Raspbian, and other Linux distros quite comfortably.

Raspberry Pi

What to say about this tiny, cheap, power-pack series of computing boards? The UK based Raspberry Pi Foundation launched the first-ever credit-card sized circuit board which was able to perform tasks like a full-blown desktop PC. Eben Upton and his team introduced this new way of learning in electronics & coding for the educational institutes initially. Soon after knowing its capability and functioning, worldwide tinkerers and enthusiasts included various Raspberry Pi models in their new, unique, innovative, and useful project designs.

Shipping of over 15 Million Raspberry Pi units till the date shows how popular this series of the board are among the coders and designers. From the official Operating Systems like Raspbian to the latest Windows 10 IOT Core, the Raspberry Pi boards support a wide range of Operating Systems.

Some of the most popular boards from both the companies are listed below:

Banana Pi Vs Raspberry Pi Boards

We have seen the differences between the two of the biggest tech giants in the world of Single Board Computers. Now, I will show you some exact benchmark reviews of the most popular and advanced boards from both of them. Let’s check the review and benchmark for Banana Pi M3 Vs Raspberry Pi 3 computing boards.

Banana Pi VS Raspberry Pi 3

Here, we will compare different working functionalities of the Banana Pi M3 and Raspberry Pi 3 models.

Banana Pi M3

This super powerful Banana Pi development board comes with an Octa-core processor & 2GB RAM. It comes with great connectivity options including an HDMI port, two USB ports, a SATA port, one Ethernet connection port, and a port for Bluetooth. It is able to run almost all the modern Operating Systems of Windows, Android, and Linux platforms.

Raspberry Pi 3

The Raspberry Pi 3 is the most advanced, powerful, flexible, and appropriate model from the Raspberry Pi Foundation. With inbuilt WiFi and Bluetooth capability, it can be used conveniently as a proper desktop PC. The Pi 3 board comes with a Quad-core processor at a 1.2GHz frequency and 1GB RAM. Along with the onboard wireless connectivity, it has four USB ports, one HDMI port and a port for the Ethernet. Like other modern SBS from Raspberry Pi family, it can run all the compatible Operating System quite comfortably.

Banana Pi M3 Vs Raspberry Pi 3 Benchmark

How to buy the best?

The Banana Pi boards are manufactured and shipped by the Chinese company, but there is no any accurate information about the manufacturing of particular component, design ideas, sponsorship details, etc. Also, as the team has not native English language, it is no wonder you may found broken English written on the site which sometimes a bit confusing. The website is slow, and a few links are broken. The Banana Pi does not have an enormous community support as the Raspberry Pi has.

On the other hand, with tremendous data on the official site and other online resources, community support which helps to do from A to Z in your Raspberry Pi project,  and compatibility to different platforms make the Raspberry Pi versions more preferable for the electronics and robotics designs.

But, not necessary that the best thing is always the best for everything in every time, right?

What do you think? Give your feedback on the Banana Pi and Raspberry Pi boards in the comment section below.