At the local launch of ASUS’ Intel 200 series motherboards, we had the chance to take a lot at the Tinker Board. A Raspberry PI contender that should put the beloved credit card sized computer to shame – specification wise.
The ASUS Tinker Board features an 8.5 x 5.3 cm dimensions, and is armed with the Rockchip 1.8Ghz quad-core Arm Cortex A17 processor and the ARM Mali-T764 GPU. A combination that is even more powerful than that found on the Raspberry PI 3. Perhaps the best part of the ASUS Tinker Board is its native support for H.264 and H.265 decoding, enabling 4K media playback for such a small device. It also rocks a Gbit LAN port, 4x USB ports, and a built-in 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi + BT module.
ASUS also developed their own Debian based OS for the Tinker Board, which is a nice addition. Pricing is set at 3, 400 PHP. Specifications alone is not enough to topple the giant that is Raspberry PI. Community support, and ASUS’ commitment to the Tinker Board is an utmost importance.
