Asus Tinker Board 2S

This is the little board that couldn’t, says a disappointed Les Pounder as he tries a board that’s definitely no Raspberry Pi.

- Les Pounder

IN BRIEF

SoC: Rockchip RK3399

CPU: dual-core Cortex-A72 @ 2.0GHz, quadcore Cortex-A53 @ 1.5GHz

GPU: Mali-T860 MP4 GPU @ 800MHz

RAM: 2GB (4GB)

Storage: 16GB eMMC, Micro SD

Display: 1x HDMI, 1x USB Type-C, 1x 22-pin MIPI DSI

Comms: 1x Gigabit LAN, 1x 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0

Audio: 1x HDMI audio, 1x S/PDIF via GPIO, 1x PCM/I2S GPIO

USB: 3x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A, 1x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-C

GPIO: 40-pin headers including up to: 28x GPIO, 2x SPI bus, 2x I2C bus, 2x UART, 3x PWM, 1x PCM/ I2S, 1x S/PDIF TX, 2x 5V power, 2x 3.3V power, 8x Ground

Power: 12~19V DC

Size: 85x56mm

Designed to outmatch the Raspberry Pi 4, the Asus Tinkerboard 2S has a few features that look good on paper compared to the Pi, including a six-core CPU and 16GB of on-board storage.

The Asus Tinker Board 2S has a big. LITTLE CPU configuration, with two 2GHz Arm Cortex A72 cores and four 1.5GHz Arm Cortex A53 cores. When we need the extra power, the A72s kick in, but for general tasks the A53s get the job done. That’s compared to four, equal 1.5GHz Cortex A72 cores on the Raspberry Pi 4.