When comparing Banana Pi vs PINE A64, the Slant community recommends PINE A64 for most people. In the question“What are the best single-board computers?” PINE A64 is ranked 15th while Banana Pi is ranked 48th. The most important reason people chose PINE A64 is:
The Pine64 has a HDMI port which offers 4K streaming capabilities and coupled with support for Kodi it can be transformed into a pretty powerful media streaming centre.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Official support for multiple Desktop-version Linux distros
Banana Pi officially supports Fedora, Arch, Lubuntu and openSUSE. It also can be used with Raspbian (Debian derivative) or Android.
Pro Additional keys for booting or shutting down
Pro SATA port
Pro Excellent compatibility with Raspberry Pi software
Other than having a port of Raspbian (the official OS for Raspberry Pi) available for use with full capabilities, Banana Pi can also use many applications that were originally written for Raspberry. One of these is WiringPi, a C/C++ library which gives easy access to Raspberry's I/O with a strong Arduino flavor. But that is just one example of the many open source projects being ported to Banana Pi.
Pro Onboard Wi-Fi
Most models have an onboard Wi-Fi.
Pro Can stream 4K video
The Pine64 has a HDMI port which offers 4K streaming capabilities and coupled with support for Kodi it can be transformed into a pretty powerful media streaming centre.
Pro Extremely powerful for its price
With a price of $15 it's one of the most powerful and fast single board computers on the market today, able to compete with products that are more than double its price.
Pro Optional and bespoke 7" Touchscreen and Analog Audio DAC
Range of accessories now available that expand core functionality without worrying [too much] about compatibility.
Pro Additional GPIOs (Euler bus)
A GPIO (general purpose input/output) port is included, which allows for more flexible use.
Pro Versatile hardware
The board already comes with a lot of things.
Cons
Con Bad software support
Con No off-the-shelf camera modules
The A20 chip that the Banana Pi uses lacks a true Camera Serial Interface implementation, instead it uses a parallel camera interface. The problem with this is that there are no off-the-shelf camera modules that support this and can connect to the Banana Pi, but it should be mentioned that the makers of Banana Pi have promised to create a camera module that is supported by it.
Con Does not fit most Raspberry Pi cases, even though it's where it clearly has gotten the inspiration from
The Banana Pi is pretty noticeable a Rapberry Pi lookalike and the name does not hide this information either. Unfortunately it's a bit larger than the Raspberry Pi, making it very hard to fit into most Raspberry Pi cases.
Con Bad support
Con Finicky PSU support
It's very hard to find a PSU (power supply unit) that works with Pine64. While other single board computers (such as the ODROID, MK802IV, and MK808) work with virtually any 5V/2A PSUs, the power supply is a bit too sensitive (even when using a power strip with 8 USB ports with all SoCs running off the 1A or 2.4A connections).
Con No onboard Wi-Fi or Bluetooth
Not included by default, but an optional WiFi 802.11 b/g/n & Bluetooth module can be added.
Con Huge size
The A64 is 127mm x 79mm which is significantly larger than other single board computers on the market.
Con You can't use an adapter to DVI VGA
It only supports HDMI.