Raspberry Pi Zero vs ASUS Tinker Board S

Intended to be as cost-effective for younger people to learn basics of IT and Computer Science, Raspberry Pi Zero costs around 5$ while it's W and WH variants costs 10$.

The Raspberry Pi Zero measures only 6.5cmX3cm and is 0.5cm thick. Making it one of the smallest (if not the smallest) single board computer that can run a desktop OS.

The small size makes it extremely portable and manageable, compared for example to the original Raspberry Pi which often looked clunky and large when strapped on something that would be moving.

Raspberry Pi has the largest following of any single-board computer. The amount of guides, tutorials and software available for the Raspberry Pi is unmatched by any other competitor. A regular user has close to no chance to run into a problem that hasn’t been covered already. If a web search doesn’t yield any results, the users on the official forums are very responsive and will usually reply within a day.

great for small projects

Because of its small size and because of the ARM based processor which is extremely energy efficient, it can be run with any kind of external battery pack, even those that are used to charge phones.

This makes it perfect for portable projects that need to be run even when not close to an energy source.

Raspberry Pi Zero has three variants, the Raspberry Pi Zero W, which has a WiFi card included, the Raspberry Pi Zero WH, which has both the WiFi card and has the GPIO headers pre-soldered, and the original Raspberry Pi Zero.

The GPU that the Pi Zero uses is relatively powerful. In fact, it should be able to run a full HD display at 60FPS without any problems.

All Raspberry Pi boards run Linux as a default OS, the Debian-based Raspbian specifically. Setting up Raspbian on a Raspberry Pi is a breeze and even someone who has not installed an OS before can easily do it.

By simply following the official documentation, you download the relevant software on the microSD card and boot up the board. After this, you can simply follow the instructions to install the OS.

Zeroes are basically trimmed down versions of their larger Raspberry Pi sisters. Trimming out unecessary I/O ports and connectivity ports were done to make the factor of the Zero smaller. As of 2018, Zeroes are based on the Raspberry Pi 2 hardware.

Unlike its competitors, Zero has extensive OS support from the industry, ranging from Windows 10 IoT core, to Alpine's Raspberry branch.

If the kernel is compiled properly (like re4son kernel for Kali linux) it's surprisingly fast.

The Asus Tinker Board S is a more powerful single-board computer than a Raspberry Pi Model B since it has a more powerful microprocessor as well as larger and faster RAM memory.

The ASUS Tinker Board S doesn't have problems related to overheating because it comes with a massive heatsink that can dissipate all heat generated by the board's powerful microprocessor.

All you need to do to set this board up and running is to upload the appropriate Android or Linux image. Both images can be obtained from the ASUS's official web resource in the form of downloadable .zip files. Simply download the files and drivers on your computer and use the Etcher to flash the Tinker Board S. Overall, the process takes around 10 minutes to complete.

You'll have no problem connecting to a WiFi network or Bluetooth peripherals with the Tinker Board S since it comes with an onboard 802.11 b/g/n - compliant WiFi and Bluetooth transceiver.

Unlike the previous version of the ASUS's Tinker Board, the model S comes equipped with a 16GB eMMC storage which means that you'll always have some space to store the computer's OS as well as some extra applications.

The eMMC memory performs on par with the more commonly known SD memory used on the majority of other single board computers out there since both of those are based on NAND.

You'll not have to tinker around finding the case for this single-board computer since it has the same form factor as the Raspberry Pi 3. You can find a variety of cases that start at around $6.50 here.

Right now, Tinker Board S can run both Android and Linux. Linux comes in the form of TinkerOS_Debian that is based on a well-known Debian distribution while the TinkerOS_Android is based on the Android 6.

This single board-computer has enough juice to stream the 4K media at the frame rate of 30Hz through its HDMI port.

You're less likely to fry this SBC than some of the other ones because the Tinker Board S has the low-voltage detection circuitry which will shut down the computer if it detects inappropriately low voltage coming from the power supply. Usually, cheaper power adapters are the ones that fail to reach the needed 5V mark.

Clear and colorful design.