Skip to content
Published on

Open Hardware & Maker Tech 2026 — Framework / Raspberry Pi 5 / Pico 2 RP2350 / Arduino R4 / ESP32 / M5Stack / Jetson Deep Dive

🇰🇷KO🇺🇸EN🇯🇵JA
Split View필사 모드
Authors

Prologue — What sits on a maker's desk in 2026

In the early 2010s a typical maker's desk held an Arduino Uno R3, a Raspberry Pi 3, and occasionally a BeagleBone Black. The 2026 landscape is completely different.

  • Framework has closed a Series B with modular laptops. A user-serviceable mainboard, keyboard, display, and ports — for the first time, a modular laptop has reached commercial viability.
  • Raspberry Pi has completed its lineup. The Pi 5 (Oct 2023), the Pi 500 keyboard-form computer (Dec 2024), and the Pi AI Kit based on a Hailo-8L — the Pi is no longer just an "educational computer," it is a serious edge-compute platform.
  • The Pico 2 ushered in a dual-architecture era. The RP2350 launched in August 2024 packs both Arm Cortex-M33 cores and RISC-V Hazard3 cores into a single die, with the architecture choice made at boot time.
  • Arduino moved to Renesas. The Uno R4 has left the ATmega328P behind for a Renesas RA4M1 (Arm Cortex-M4), while the Portenta H7 targets industrial deployments.
  • ESP32 dominates the MCU market. Between the LX7 dual-core ESP32-S3 and the RISC-V WiFi 6 ESP32-C6 (2022), Espressif has effectively become the IoT MCU standard.
  • RISC-V SBCs have crossed into practical territory. StarFive VisionFive 2, Milk-V Mars, Banana Pi BPI-F3 — not yet a direct Raspberry Pi replacement, but you can finally run a desktop Linux on RISC-V.
  • Edge AI is now commodity. The NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano 8GB and Google Coral Dev Board are absorbing inference workloads in homes and on factory floors.

This post organizes the 2026 open hardware and maker ecosystem into four large categories — laptops, SBCs, MCUs, and AI — and reviews each major board's strengths, weaknesses, pricing, and ecosystem. At the end we answer the practical question: students, learners, IoT developers, edge-AI engineers, and retro gamers — who should pick what?

1. The 2026 open-hardware map — four categories

The 2026 open-hardware world breaks down into four categories.

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              2026 Open Hardware & Maker — 4 Categories               │
│                                                                      │
│  [Modular Laptops]                                                   │
│    Framework Laptop 13 (Intel / AMD, 13.5", DIY)                     │
│    Framework Laptop 16 (AMD Ryzen, GPU module, 16.1")                │
│                                                                      │
│  [SBC — Single Board Computer (Linux class)]                         │
│    Raspberry Pi 5 (BCM2712, 4-core Cortex-A76, $80+)                 │
│    Raspberry Pi 500 (Pi 5 in a keyboard, $90)                        │
│    NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano 8GB (edge AI, $499+)                      │
│    Google Coral Dev Board (Edge TPU, $129+)                          │
│    StarFive VisionFive 2 (RISC-V, JH7110)                            │
│    Milk-V Mars (RISC-V, JH7110, Pi-compat pinout)                    │
│    Banana Pi BPI-F3 (SpacemiT K1, 8-core RISC-V)                     │
│    SiFive HiFive Unmatched / Premier P550                            │
│    Khadas VIM4 / Edge2                                               │
│    Radxa Rock 5B+ (RK3588)                                           │
│    Banana Pi BPI-M7 (RK3588)                                         │
│    Orange Pi 5 Plus (RK3588)                                         │
│    NanoPi R6S / R6C (RK3588S)                                        │
│    BeagleBone Black / BeagleBone AI-64                               │
│    Pine64 Quartz64 / RockPro64                                       │
│                                                                      │
│  [MCU — Microcontroller (RTOS / bare-metal)]                         │
│    Raspberry Pi Pico 2 (RP2350, dual Arm/RISC-V, $5)                 │
│    Arduino Uno R4 Minima / WiFi (RA4M1, Cortex-M4)                   │
│    Arduino Portenta H7 (STM32H7, industrial)                         │
│    Arduino Pro / Nicla / MKR family                                  │
│    ESP32-S3 (Xtensa LX7, WiFi/BT)                                    │
│    ESP32-C6 (RISC-V, WiFi 6, Thread / Zigbee)                        │
│    ESP32-H2 (RISC-V, Thread / Zigbee only)                           │
│    Adafruit Feather / QT Py / Trinket (CircuitPython)                │
│    SeeedStudio XIAO / Wio / reTerminal                               │
│    M5Stack Core2 / StickC / AtomS3 / CardKB                          │
│    Onion Omega 2+                                                    │
│                                                                      │
│  [Handhelds / Retro]                                                 │
│    Anbernic RG35XX / RG556 / RG406H (Android or Linux)               │
│    Retroid Pocket 4 Pro / Pocket 5                                   │
│    Powkiddy RGB30 / X55                                              │
│    OrangePi NEO 2 (SteamOS-compatible portable PC)                   │
│    Steam Deck OLED (Valve, the de-facto handheld standard)           │
│    GPD Win 4 / Win Mini (Windows portables)                          │
│                                                                      │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

What this category map says about 2026:

  • Modular laptops: Framework is effectively the sole standard. There are Linux-first laptops like System76's Lemur Pro, but in terms of true user-serviceability nobody competes with Framework.
  • SBC: Pi 5 reached desktop-class performance, putting some truth behind the old joke that "Pi does everything." RK3588 SBCs (Rock 5B+, Orange Pi 5 Plus, NanoPi R6S) have established themselves as more powerful alternatives, and RISC-V SBCs have reached "the desktop environment actually works."
  • MCU: The dual-architecture RP2350, the RISC-V move in ESP32-C6, and the Cortex-M4 in Arduino R4 — all point toward RISC-V and Cortex-M. The AVR / ATmega328P era is over.
  • Edge AI: Jetson Orin Nano and Coral form a duopoly, with the Pi AI Kit (Hailo-8L) joining as a low-cost entry point.
  • Handhelds: Steam Deck has set the market standard, while Anbernic and Retroid dominate the affordable Android / Linux tier.

Selection matrix

CategoryEntryStandardPro
Modular laptopFramework 13 DIYFramework 13 (assembled)Framework 16 + GPU module
Linux SBCRaspberry Pi 5Pi 5 8GB / Pi 500Radxa Rock 5B+ / Orange Pi 5 Plus
Edge AIPi AI KitJetson Orin Nano 8GBJetson AGX Orin
RISC-V SBCMilk-V MarsStarFive VisionFive 2Banana Pi BPI-F3
MCU learningArduino Uno R4Pi Pico 2ESP32-S3
IoT mass-productionESP32-C3ESP32-S3ESP32-C6 (WiFi 6)
Stackable kitM5Stack StickCM5Stack Core2M5Stack Tab5
HandheldAnbernic RG35XXRetroid Pocket 5Steam Deck OLED / OrangePi NEO 2

2. Framework Laptop 13 / 16 — the modular laptop standard

Framework Computer, founded by Nirav Patel in 2021, made one simple promise: every part of a laptop should be user-replaceable. By 2026 that promise is largely kept.

Framework Laptop 13 essentials

It is a 13.5-inch 3:2 display (2256 x 1504) with four Expansion Card slots — modules that let the user fit USB-A, USB-C, HDMI, DisplayPort, microSD, or Ethernet cards on any side. The user chooses which port goes where.

Mainboards by generation:

  • Intel 11th gen (2021) — Tiger Lake.
  • Intel 12th gen (2022) — Alder Lake.
  • Intel 13th gen (2023) — Raptor Lake.
  • AMD Ryzen 7040 (late 2023) — Phoenix.
  • Intel Core Ultra (2024) — Meteor Lake.
  • AMD Ryzen AI 300 (late 2024) — Strix Point.
  • Intel Core Ultra 2 (2025) — Lunar Lake / Arrow Lake.
  • AMD Ryzen AI Max (2025 ~ 2026) — Strix Halo.

The most interesting capability is that the mainboard alone is replaceable. A 2021 11th-gen board can be swapped for a 2026 Ryzen AI 300 board, and the removed older board fits a mini-ITX case as a desktop or media server. Framework officially sells the mini-ITX adapter case.

Framework Laptop 16 (2024)

A 16.1-inch 165Hz panel and, crucially, a GPU module. If you need a dGPU you fit a Radeon RX 7700S; if not, you leave the Expansion Bay empty. The keyboard is modular too — you can shift its position, or fit a macropad or LED matrix module beside it.

Weaknesses and criticism

  • Price. Specced for specced, it costs more than a Dell XPS or ThinkPad. You pay a modularity premium.
  • Battery life. Custom BIOS and the modular design cost 1 ~ 2 hours versus the equivalent non-modular laptop.
  • Weight. Slightly heavier than a class-matched ThinkPad.

Despite that, Framework matters as the first commercial attempt at reducing e-waste. The Series A (2022) and Series B (2024) funded the work, and the AMD Strix Halo mainboard (2025 ~ 2026) extends the platform into workstation territory.

3. Raspberry Pi 5 + Pi 500 + Pi AI Kit — completing the Pi lineup

Since the first Pi shipped in 2012 the brand has worn an "educational computer" identity. The Pi 5 (October 2023) changed that.

Raspberry Pi 5 specs

  • SoC: Broadcom BCM2712 — 4-core Arm Cortex-A76 at 2.4 GHz.
  • RAM: 4GB / 8GB / 16GB (LPDDR4X-4267).
  • GPU: VideoCore VII at 800 MHz. OpenGL ES 3.1 / Vulkan 1.2.
  • I/O: PCIe 2.0 x1 (NVMe HAT support), dual 4K 60Hz HDMI, USB 3.0 x2, gigabit Ethernet.
  • Price: 4GB 60,8GB60, 8GB 80, 16GB $120.

Versus the Pi 4, CPU performance is 2 ~ 3x, GPU about 2x, and storage IO via NVMe is more than 10x faster than SD. The result is that the Pi 5 is the first Pi usable as a desktop Linux workstation. Firefox and VS Code run at practical speeds.

Raspberry Pi 500 (December 2024)

A keyboard-integrated computer using the same SoC as the Pi 5, priced at $90. It is a direct callback to the Commodore 64 / BBC Micro design philosophy: plug an HDMI cable into a monitor and you are done. Aimed at schools and home learners.

Raspberry Pi AI Kit + AI HAT+

Launched in June 2024, the AI Kit pairs the Pi 5's PCIe slot with a Hailo-8L M.2 module for 13 TOPS of inference at $70. October 2024's AI HAT+ adds a higher-end variant where you choose a full Hailo-8 (26 TOPS) or Hailo-8L (13 TOPS).

Use cases:

  • Real-time object detection cameras (Frigate, motionEye AI integrations)
  • Robotics vision (ROS 2 integration)
  • Industrial inspection

Pi Pico W / Pico 2 / Pico 2 W

The Pi Pico (2021) is a $4 board powered by the RP2040 microcontroller. Pico W (2022) added WiFi. The Pico 2 launched in August 2024 with the RP2350, followed by Pico 2 W at year-end. The RP2350's dual architecture is the subject of the next chapter.

Pi 5 + Compute Module 5 (CM5)

CM5, released in November 2024, packages the Pi 5 SoC into a SO-DIMM industrial module. The successor to CM4, it targets industrial and embedded markets — vending machines, POS terminals, digital signage.

4. Pico 2 (Aug 2024) — RP2350 dual Arm / RISC-V architecture

The Pi Pico 2 shipped on August 8, 2024 at the same $5 as the original Pico, but with a completely new chip — the RP2350.

RP2350 specs

  • CPU: 2 x Arm Cortex-M33 at 150 MHz and 2 x RISC-V Hazard3 at 150 MHz. The architecture used at boot is selectable.
  • Memory: 520 KB SRAM, 4 MB XIP QSPI flash.
  • PIO: 12 programmable IO state machines (1.5x the RP2040). Implements unconventional protocols (NeoPixel WS2812, VGA, DVI) in software.
  • HSTX: A new high-speed serial interface usable for DVI output.
  • Security: Arm TrustZone, OTP, secure boot.
  • USB: 2.0 full-speed.
  • Analog: 4 x 12-bit ADC, 2 x 12-bit DAC (DACs were absent on the RP2040).

What the dual architecture means

Including two architectures inside one die is essentially a first for the RP2350. At boot, OTP fuses or the ROM entry point select Arm or RISC-V. At compile time you choose your target, and the same SDK builds firmware for either ISA.

// RP2350 build example (CMake)
// Arm build
cmake -DPICO_PLATFORM=rp2350-arm-s ..

// RISC-V build
cmake -DPICO_PLATFORM=rp2350-riscv ..

Why dual? The Raspberry Pi Foundation's official line is "RISC-V ecosystem validation." In practice RISC-V builds run slightly slower than the Arm builds, but you can compile the same firmware for either ISA on identical peripherals, identical memory map, and identical SDK. That makes the RP2350 one of the strongest tools for entering the RISC-V world.

Pricing

  • Pico 2 (no wireless): $5.
  • Pico 2 W: $7, with an Infineon CYW43439 WiFi / BT chip.

MicroPython / CircuitPython

The real charm of the Pico 2 is that you can blink an LED in five minutes with MicroPython or CircuitPython. Adafruit shipped a CircuitPython 9.x build for the RP2350 within the first week of launch.

# Pico 2 CircuitPython — blink the onboard LED
import board
import digitalio
import time

led = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.LED)
led.direction = digitalio.Direction.OUTPUT

while True:
    led.value = True
    time.sleep(0.5)
    led.value = False
    time.sleep(0.5)

5. Arduino Uno R4 + Portenta — classic and industrial

Arduino is the open-hardware platform born in Ivrea, Italy in 2005. The ATmega328P-based Uno R3 was the standard for nearly two decades, but 2023's Uno R4 marked the generational change.

Arduino Uno R4 Minima / WiFi (2023)

  • MCU: Renesas RA4M1 — Arm Cortex-M4 at 48 MHz. 32-bit, 256 KB Flash, 32 KB SRAM.
  • R3 compatibility: 5V IO, same pin layout, same form factor. Existing shields and most existing code work.
  • R4 WiFi extras: An Espressif ESP32-S3 co-processor for WiFi / BT and a 12x8 LED matrix display.
  • Price: Minima 20,WiFi20, WiFi 27.50.

Compared with the 8-bit ATmega328P era (16 MHz, 32 KB Flash, 2 KB SRAM), the R4 has 3x the clock, 8x the Flash, and 16x the SRAM. Arduino has finally moved to 32-bit MCUs. Most existing libraries (Servo, Stepper, OneWire) are compatible.

Arduino Portenta H7 (2020, industrial)

  • MCU: STMicroelectronics STM32H747XI — Cortex-M7 at 480 MHz plus Cortex-M4 at 240 MHz, dual-core.
  • Memory: 8 MB SDRAM, 16 MB QSPI flash, 2 MB on-chip flash.
  • Interfaces: WiFi / BT (Murata 1DX), Ethernet PHY, USB HS, MIPI DSI.
  • Price: $90.

The Portenta H7 targets industrial, medical, and automotive markets. You can build it from the Arduino IDE, STM32CubeIDE, or Mbed OS. The asymmetric multi-processing (AMP) of the M7 + M4 lets you dedicate one core to real-time control and the other to communications.

Arduino Pro / Nicla / MKR

  • Arduino Pro Mini — ATmega328P miniaturized.
  • Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense Rev2 — nRF52840 plus a long list of sensors (IMU, microphone, temperature, humidity).
  • Arduino Nicla Vision — Himax HM01B0 camera plus STM32H747.
  • Arduino MKR WiFi 1010 — SAMD21 with an ESP32 co-processor.
  • Arduino Giga R1 WiFi (2023) — STM32H747 with 76 pins and 8 MB SDRAM.

Arduino IDE 2.x (2023)

The IDE was rewritten on Eclipse Theia. Autocompletion, debugging (J-Link / CMSIS-DAP), and a serial plotter brought Arduino into the modern era; the 1.x text-editor years are over.

6. ESP32-S3 / ESP32-C6 — Espressif's RISC-V transition

Espressif Systems, based in Shanghai, started with the ESP8266 in 2014, entered the MCU market proper with ESP32 (Xtensa LX6 dual-core) in 2016, and by 2026 holds roughly half of the IoT MCU market.

ESP32-S3 (2021)

  • CPU: Xtensa LX7 dual-core at 240 MHz — a 32-bit Tensilica DSP-friendly core.
  • RAM: 512 KB SRAM plus optional PSRAM (2 ~ 8 MB).
  • Wireless: WiFi 4 (802.11 b/g/n) and Bluetooth 5 (LE).
  • USB: USB 2.0 OTG — direct PC connection without a separate USB-to-serial bridge.
  • AI: 16-bit and 32-bit MAC instructions, enabling TensorFlow Lite Micro inference.

The S3 is the ESP32 successor, adding USB OTG and AI MAC instructions. The most popular boards are Espressif's own ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1 (10)andSeeedStudio′sXIAOESP32−S3(10) and SeeedStudio's XIAO ESP32-S3 (8).

ESP32-C6 (2022) — RISC-V plus WiFi 6

  • CPU: 32-bit RISC-V (RV32IMAC) at 160 MHz plus a low-power RISC-V at 20 MHz.
  • RAM: 512 KB HP SRAM plus 16 KB LP SRAM.
  • Wireless: WiFi 6 (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.3 LE, Thread / Zigbee 802.15.4.
  • Security: AES-128/256, RSA, SHA, HMAC, ECC, TRNG.

The ESP32-C6 is Espressif's first WiFi 6 chip with Matter support. With a built-in 802.15.4 radio it can act as a Thread / Zigbee mesh node, and it is one of the prime candidates for Matter accessories — the smart-home protocol adopted as a standard by Apple HomeKit, Google Home, and Amazon Alexa. It also marks Espressif's move from Xtensa to RISC-V at the ISA level.

ESP32-H2

A sibling of the ESP32-C6 with the same RISC-V core but no WiFi — Thread / Zigbee only, for low-power applications such as Matter smart bulbs and switches.

ESP-IDF vs Arduino-ESP32

  • ESP-IDF — Espressif's official SDK on FreeRTOS, C / C++, full peripheral access. The standard for industrial and mass-production firmware.
  • Arduino-ESP32 — A wrapper usable from the Arduino IDE, convenient for learning and prototyping. It is built on top of ESP-IDF.
  • ESP-Matter — The Matter-protocol-specific SDK.

Korean / Japanese distribution

ESP32 boards are easily sourced in Korea via Hanbit Micro, DeviceMart, and Element14 Korea. In Japan the main retailers are Switch Science, Akizuki Denshi, and the local M5Stack store.

7. M5Stack — the Japanese stackable IoT idiom

M5Stack started in Shenzhen in 2017, but it is the Japanese maker community that has embraced it most enthusiastically. The brand's signature is right there in the name — 5cm x 5cm square modules that physically stack on top of each other.

M5Stack Core2 / Core3

  • MCU: ESP32-D0WDQ6-V3 (Core2) or ESP32-S3 (Core3).
  • Display: 2.0-inch 320 x 240 IPS capacitive touch.
  • Interfaces: USB-C, microSD, Grove port (I2C / UART / Analog).
  • Extras: 6-axis IMU (MPU6886), vibration motor, speaker, microphone, RTC.
  • Price: Core2 40 50,Core340 ~ 50, Core3 50 ~ 60.

M5StickC PLUS 2

  • MCU: ESP32-PICO-V3-02.
  • Display: 1.14-inch 135 x 240 IPS.
  • Size: 48 x 24 x 14 mm — a stick form.
  • Price: $20.

M5AtomS3 / AtomS3 Lite

  • MCU: ESP32-S3.
  • Size: 24 x 24 mm — the smallest M5 form factor.
  • Price: $9 ~ 13.

M5Stack Tab5 (2025)

A large 8-inch touch panel with the ESP32-P4 and 1024 x 768 IPS — the top of the M5 lineup, a desktop-class IoT board.

M5 modules (M-Bus / Grove)

The real M5 magic is the module ecosystem. On top of a base you can stack a camera, GPS, LoRa, 4G LTE, or an ENV sensor (temperature / humidity / pressure). The M-Bus 30-pin connector lets you stack indefinitely upward, while Grove ports on the side attach external sensors.

UIFlow — visual programming

M5Stack ships UIFlow, a Scratch-like block-based IDE. A student who has never coded can put together LED + button + display firmware in 30 minutes. UIFlow 1.x is Blockly-based; UIFlow 2.x is a MicroPython code generator.

8. Adafruit + CircuitPython — Limor Fried's philosophy

Adafruit Industries was founded in New York in 2005 by MIT graduate Limor Fried — also known as "Ladyada." In 2026 the company has roughly 200 employees and is estimated at $50M ~ 70M in annual revenue.

Key Adafruit boards

  • Feather — The flagship board series, available with nRF52840 (BT), ESP32-S3 (WiFi), RP2040 / RP2350, SAMD51, and others. Pin-compatible FeatherWing shields cover almost every accessory.
  • QT Py — A 21 x 18 mm board sharing form with Seeed's XIAO. SAMD21, RP2040, ESP32-S3.
  • Trinket / Gemma M0 — Tiny boards aimed at students and beginners.
  • Metro — Arduino Uno-compatible form factor in various flavors (M0, M4).
  • PyPortal — A 3.2-inch touchscreen board with ESP32 plus SAMD51.

CircuitPython

Adafruit's biggest contribution is CircuitPython. It started around 2017 as a MicroPython fork but has since grown into its own ecosystem. Major distinguishing traits:

  • Drag-and-drop firmware upload. When connected over USB, the board appears as a CIRCUITPY drive. Copy code.py onto it and the board reruns automatically — no IDE required.
  • 400+ first-party libraries. Almost every sensor, display, or actuator has an Adafruit-maintained driver.
  • Mostly source-compatible with MicroPython. Most snippets port across both.
# CircuitPython — drive an SSD1306 OLED
import board
import busio
import adafruit_ssd1306

i2c = busio.I2C(board.SCL, board.SDA)
display = adafruit_ssd1306.SSD1306_I2C(128, 32, i2c)
display.fill(0)
display.text("Hello, Pico 2!", 0, 0, 1)
display.show()

Adafruit's educational content

The Adafruit Learning System (https://learn.adafruit.com) hosts more than 3,000 free tutorials, every one with a learning curve estimate, parts list, and step-by-step code. It has become a default STEAM-education reference in US schools.

Where Ladyada sits

Limor Fried is an iconic figure in the US maker community. Fast Company put her on its "Most Influential 100" list in 2011, and in 2024 she was appointed to a White House STEM advisory board. The Adafruit "Ask an Engineer" Wednesday-night live stream has run nearly weekly since 2010.

9. SeeedStudio — reTerminal / Wio / XIAO

Shenzhen-based SeeedStudio, founded by Eric Pan in 2008, runs the full stack — PCB fabrication (Seeed Fusion), volume IoT boards (Wio, XIAO), and industrial-grade edge devices (reTerminal).

Seeed XIAO series

  • XIAO SAMD21 — The most popular tiny board, 21 x 18 mm, $5.
  • XIAO RP2040 — RP2040-based.
  • XIAO RP2350 — Same RP2350 as the Pico 2.
  • XIAO ESP32-C3 / ESP32-S3 / ESP32-C6 — WiFi / BT family.
  • XIAO nRF52840 — BLE-focused.

Seeed Wio series

  • Wio Terminal — Cortex-M4F plus a 2.4-inch LCD and a 5-way joystick, $40, ATSAMD51P19A.
  • Wio Lite — An ESP32-based IoT board.
  • Wio RP2040 — RP2040 with WiFi.

reTerminal (2021)

  • SoC: Raspberry Pi CM4.
  • Display: 5-inch 1280 x 720 IPS capacitive touch.
  • Interfaces: Four USB-A, HDMI, RTC, IMU.
  • Price: $195 ~ 230.

reTerminal turns the Raspberry Pi CM4 into an industrial HMI (Human-Machine Interface). It is popular as a kiosk or monitoring panel in factories and clinics.

reComputer family

NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano / NX assemblies in industrial enclosures — Seeed's own industrial PC line.

SeeedStudio's educational content

The Seeed Wiki (https://wiki.seeedstudio.com) and Seeed's YouTube channel publish English, Chinese, and Korean material.

10. BeagleBoard + Pine64 — keepers of the open-hardware spirit

BeagleBoard

The BeagleBoard.org Foundation, founded by Texas Instruments in 2008 as a non-profit, ships boards built on TI's OMAP / Sitara SoCs and fully open designs.

  • BeagleBone Black (2013) — AM335x (Cortex-A8 at 1 GHz), 512 MB DDR3, 4 GB eMMC, $55. The most popular model. The Programmable Real-Time Unit (PRU) is a microcontroller-class co-processor.
  • BeagleBone AI-64 (2022) — TDA4VM (Cortex-A72 x 2 plus DSP), 4 GB LPDDR4, aimed at ML inference.
  • BeagleY-AI (2024) — TI AM67A (Cortex-A53 x 4) with a 4 TOPS AI accelerator.
  • PocketBeagle (2017) — 35 x 56 mm tiny board on AM3358.

BeagleBoard's strength is being fully open. Schematics, BOM, and PCB Gerber files are all published — a contrast with Raspberry Pi, whose Broadcom firmware remains closed. The weakness is that the community is smaller than the Pi's, so troubleshooting resources are thinner.

Pine64

Founded in 2016, Pine64 spans SBCs, laptops, phones, and smartwatches — pure open-hardware DNA.

  • PINE A64-LTS (2016) — Allwinner A64.
  • RockPro64 (2018) — RK3399 with dGPU support.
  • Quartz64 Model A/B (2021) — RK3566.
  • Star64 (2023) — StarFive JH7110 (RISC-V).
  • Pinebook Pro (2019) — A 200RK3399laptop,11.6/14inch.AmainstreamLinuxdesktopat200 RK3399 laptop, 11.6 / 14 inch. A mainstream Linux desktop at 200 was shocking at the time.
  • PinePhone (2019) — A mainline-Linux phone (postmarketOS, Mobian, Manjaro Phosh), $150 ~ 200.
  • PinePhone Pro (2021) — RK3399S, the PinePhone successor.
  • PineTab2 (2023) — A 10.1-inch Linux tablet.
  • Pinetime — An open-source smartwatch ($30) with the InfiniTime firmware.

Pine64's purpose is "true Linux on mobile, not Android or iOS." It is not a mass-market product line — it is a platform for makers, Linux enthusiasts, and privacy advocates.

11. RISC-V SBC — VisionFive 2 / Milk-V / SiFive / Banana Pi BPI-F3

RISC-V is the open ISA started at UC Berkeley by Krste Asanović and David Patterson in 2010. By 2026 several RISC-V SBCs run a practical desktop Linux.

StarFive VisionFive 2 (2022)

  • SoC: StarFive JH7110 — 4-core SiFive U74 (RV64GC, RVV 0.7.1) at 1.5 GHz.
  • GPU: Imagination BXE-4-32 — OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.2.
  • RAM: 2 / 4 / 8 GB LPDDR4.
  • Interfaces: Dual Ethernet, PCIe 2.0 x1, USB 3.0, M.2.
  • Price: 2 GB 55,4GB55, 4 GB 65, 8 GB $85.

VisionFive 2 launched via a 2022 Kickstarter. By 2026 Debian, Ubuntu, and Fedora boot cleanly, and GNOME / KDE desktops work — slightly slow, but usable. Performance lands a hair behind Pi 4.

Milk-V Mars (2023)

  • SoC: StarFive JH7110 (same chip as VisionFive 2).
  • Form factor: Pi 4-compatible pinout.
  • Price: $40 ~ 70.

Milk-V reuses the VisionFive 2 SoC in a Pi 4-shaped board. Cases and HATs designed for the Pi 4 fit it directly, making it a friendly first RISC-V SBC.

Milk-V Pioneer (2023)

  • SoC: SOPHGO SG2042 — 64-core (!) RISC-V XuanTie C920.
  • Memory: Up to 128 GB DDR4 ECC.
  • Price: $2,500 for the motherboard plus CPU.

The Pioneer is a server-class RISC-V workstation — 64 RISC-V cores in a single board, fit for mini-ITX / ATX cases. RISC-V compiler and kernel developers find it irresistible.

Banana Pi BPI-F3 (2024)

  • SoC: SpacemiT K1 — 8-core RISC-V (RVA22 plus RVV 1.0) at 1.6 GHz.
  • AI: 2 TOPS NPU.
  • RAM: 4 / 8 / 16 GB LPDDR4X.
  • Price: about $80 for 8 GB.

The SpacemiT K1 is China's SpacemiT-designed RISC-V chip, the first mainstream SBC SoC to formally support RVV 1.0 (the Vector Extension). Vector instructions give SIMD-like parallelism, producing meaningful gains in media and ML workloads.

SiFive HiFive Unmatched (2021) / Premier P550 (2024)

  • Unmatched: SiFive U740 (four cores plus a monitor core), $665, now discontinued.
  • Premier P550: SiFive P550 (four cores), launched 2024. Pricing not public, sold to developers.

SiFive is the company founded by RISC-V co-creator Krste Asanović. The HiFive series consists of developer evaluation boards.

The practical RISC-V limits

  • Software ecosystem. Desktop environments (GNOME, KDE) run, but some Electron apps (notably the default VS Code build) need a separate RISC-V build.
  • GPU drivers. The Imagination BXE relies on the Mesa PowerVR driver. Usable, but less stable than the VideoCore VII path on Pi 5.
  • Performance. 1.5 ~ 2x slower than a comparable Arm SBC, especially in integer and floating-point arithmetic.

Even so, RISC-V SBCs matter because they are where ARM desktops were a decade ago. ARM desktops in 2010 were slow and compatibility-poor; ten years later Apple shipped the M1. RISC-V can plausibly take the same arc.

12. NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano + Coral Dev Board — edge AI

By 2026 the edge-AI market is a duopoly between NVIDIA Jetson and Google Coral.

NVIDIA Jetson lineup

  • Jetson Nano (legacy, $99) — discontinued. 4 GB LPDDR4, 472 GFLOPS.
  • Jetson Orin Nano 4GB / 8GB (2023) — 6-core Cortex-A78AE, Ampere GPU with 1024 CUDA and 32 Tensor cores. The 8 GB version delivers 40 TOPS (INT8). $499.
  • Jetson Orin NX 8GB / 16GB — 100 TOPS, $799 ~ 1,099.
  • Jetson AGX Orin 32GB / 64GB — 275 TOPS, $1,999 ~ 2,799.

The 8 GB Orin Nano ($499) gained popularity in December 2024 (with the 8 GB option becoming a focus point). At 40 TOPS INT8 it runs YOLO v8, Llama 3 8B (q4 quantized), and Stable Diffusion 1.5 at usable latency.

Why Jetson wins

  • CUDA plus TensorRT — the entire NVIDIA stack runs as is. Compile a PyTorch or TensorFlow model with TensorRT and infer at INT8 or FP16.
  • JetPack — the OS image bundles Ubuntu, L4T (Linux for Tegra), CUDA, cuDNN, and TensorRT.
  • Isaac ROS — robotics ROS 2 packages pre-optimized.

Google Coral Dev Board

  • SoC: NXP i.MX 8M plus Edge TPU (4 TOPS).
  • RAM: 1 GB / 4 GB.
  • Price: $129 ~ 169.

Coral's pitch is low power plus low price. The Edge TPU delivers 4 TOPS at under 2 W. It runs only INT8 quantized models — no FP16 or FP32 — so model conversion is mandatory, but the form factor is friendly for embedded IoT.

Coral USB Accelerator

  • A USB-C dongle that adds Edge TPU 4 TOPS to a Pi or desktop Linux box, $59.50.

The Coral USB stick is the cheapest path to accelerate object detection or person detection on a Pi 4 / Pi 5.

Pi AI Kit vs Jetson Nano vs Coral

MetricPi AI Kit (Hailo-8L)Jetson Orin Nano 8GBCoral Dev Board
AI compute13 TOPS40 TOPS4 TOPS
Full system pricePi 5 8GB + AI Kit = $150$499$129 ~ 169
Power draw~5W7 ~ 15Wunder 3W
FrameworkHailo SDKCUDA / TensorRT / PyTorchTensorFlow Lite
Model formatONNX to HEFPyTorch / TF / ONNXTFLite (INT8)

13. Khadas / Radxa / Banana Pi / Orange Pi / NanoPi — the other SBCs

The "RK3588 club" has positioned itself as the Pi 5 alternative. All members ride Rockchip's RK3588 (8 cores — four Cortex-A76 plus four Cortex-A55 — with a Mali-G610 GPU and a 6 TOPS NPU).

Radxa Rock 5B+ (2023)

  • SoC: RK3588.
  • RAM: 4 / 8 / 16 / 32 GB LPDDR4X.
  • Interfaces: M.2 NVMe, dual 2.5G Ethernet, USB-C PD, HDMI 2.1 (8K output).
  • Price: 8 GB 159,16GB159, 16 GB 209, 32 GB $329.

The Rock 5B+ is broadly considered the most refined RK3588 SBC. Dual 2.5G Ethernet makes it a viable router or NAS, and Armbian / Debian / Ubuntu / Android are all supported.

Orange Pi 5 Plus (2023)

  • SoC: RK3588.
  • RAM: 4 / 8 / 16 / 32 GB.
  • Price: 8 GB 135,32GB135, 32 GB 269.

Orange Pi runs a wide product line — beyond the 5 series, expect Allwinner H6 and Allwinner T527 options.

Banana Pi BPI-M7 (2024)

  • SoC: RK3588.
  • RAM: 8 / 16 / 32 GB.
  • Price: $165 for 8 GB.

NanoPi R6S / R6C (2023)

  • SoC: RK3588S (RK3588 with reduced pin count).
  • RAM: 8 GB.
  • Interfaces: Dual 2.5G Ethernet on R6S, 1G plus 2.5G on R6C.
  • Price: R6S 169,R6C169, R6C 129.

The R6S / R6C is engineered for routers, firewalls, and NAS use. OpenWrt support is excellent.

Khadas VIM4 (2022) / Edge2 (2023)

  • VIM4: Amlogic A311D2 (Cortex-A73 plus Cortex-A53), 8 GB.
  • Edge2: RK3588S, 16 GB.

Khadas targets industrial and OEM customers, with consistent camera / DSI interfaces and a SoM (System on Module) form factor.

Khadas Mind (2023 ~ 2024)

An 11th-gen Intel Core i7 mini PC. Not really an SBC but an interesting compact-desktop experiment.

Orange Pi Zero 3 (2023) / Zero 2W (2024)

  • Zero 3: Allwinner H618, $30 ~ 50. A Pi Zero alternative.
  • Zero 2W: Allwinner H618, $20 ~ 35.

Low-cost, low-power IoT boards. They go head-to-head with the Pi Zero 2W ($15).

14. Retro handhelds — Anbernic / Retroid / Powkiddy / OrangePi NEO 2

The late 2020s saw an explosive retro-gaming handheld market. Nearly every device is an ARM SoC running Android or Linux.

Anbernic — the most popular brand

  • RG35XX H / Plus / SP (2023 ~ 2024) — Allwinner H700. Smoothly emulates up to PS1, $50 ~ 75. The SP follows the GBA SP shell.
  • RG556 (2024) — Unisoc T820 (8 cores). Handles N64 / PSP / Dreamcast at $179. Android 13.
  • RG406H / RG406V (2024) — UNISOC T618. 4-inch OLED, $179 ~ 219.

Anbernic's strengths are value for money and a deep lineup — by 2026 a new model arrives almost every month.

Retroid Pocket 4 Pro / Pocket 5 (2024)

  • Pocket 4 Pro: MediaTek Dimensity 1100. PSP, Dreamcast, Saturn, GameCube, $199.
  • Pocket 5 (late 2024): Snapdragon 865 (8 cores), 5.5-inch OLED, all the way up to PS2 / Wii / GameCube, $219 ~ 249.

Retroid pushes higher performance and wider compatibility than Anbernic.

Powkiddy

  • RGB30 (2023): Rockchip RK3566, 720 x 720 IPS square panel, $99 — perfect for vertical games (Mr. Driller and many classics).
  • X55 (2023): Rockchip RK3566, 5.5-inch IPS, $129 ~ 159.

Powkiddy plays the value card.

OrangePi NEO 2 (2024)

  • SoC: AMD Ryzen 7 8840U (Zen 4 x 8).
  • RAM: 16 GB LPDDR5.
  • Display: 7-inch 1920 x 1200 IPS.
  • OS: Manjaro Linux with KDE plus ROCK Plasma Bigscreen.
  • Price: $599 ~ 699.

The NEO 2 squares up directly against the Steam Deck. The AMD Ryzen 7 8840U delivers 1.5 ~ 2x the performance of the Steam Deck OLED's Zen 2 — a budget-aware option in the handheld-PC space.

Steam Deck OLED (2023)

  • SoC: AMD Zen 2 plus RDNA 2 (custom APU).
  • Display: 7.4-inch 1280 x 800 OLED, 90 Hz.
  • OS: SteamOS 3 (Arch with KDE Plasma and Gamescope).
  • Price: 549/549 / 649.

Valve's Steam Deck OLED is the de-facto handheld-PC standard. SteamOS's gaming-first UX and Proton's polish for Windows-game compatibility leave the competition trailing.

How the handheld market segments

  • Budget (around $80): Anbernic RG35XX H — 32-bit-era games (GBA, GB, NES, SNES, Genesis).
  • Mid (around $200): Retroid Pocket 5 / RG556 — N64 / PSP / Dreamcast / partial GameCube.
  • Premium (around $500): Steam Deck OLED — modern PC games (Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring).
  • Desktop-class portable (around $700): OrangePi NEO 2 — full PC gaming on the go.

15. Korea / Japan — Hanbit, Kocoafab, Switch Science, Akizuki

Global open-hardware distribution is led by the US (Adafruit, SparkFun, Digi-Key, Mouser), the UK (The Pi Hut, Pimoroni), and Asia (Seeed, AliExpress, Taobao), but Korean and Japanese makers tend to use local channels.

Korea

  • Hanbit Micro (https://www.hanbitmicro.co.kr) — Founded 1996, the oldest distributor for ESP32, STM32, Arduino, and Raspberry Pi. Distinct from publisher Hanbit Media.
  • DeviceMart (https://www.devicemart.co.kr) — General-parts distributor — sensors, actuators, motors, cables, enclosures, tools. Most Korean makers visit weekly.
  • Element14 Korea (https://kr.element14.com) — Premier Farnell's Korean arm. The official distributor for industrial / global parts (TI, NXP, ST, Microchip).
  • Robocare / Mouser Electronics Korea — Sourcing for production.
  • Make: Korea Magazine — The Korean edition of Make: magazine, irregular publication after 2024.
  • Kocoafab (https://kocoafab.cc) — Maker-education content site that runs classes, kits, and community.
  • WeMake / Hardware Con — Maker fairs and events.

Japan

  • Switch Science (https://www.switch-science.com) — Founded 2008, the first stop for Japanese makers. Official distributor for ESP32, Raspberry Pi, Adafruit, M5Stack.
  • Akizuki Denshi (https://akizukidenshi.com) — The classic Akihabara electronics shop. Low prices and deep stock.
  • Sengoku Denshi — Another Akihabara shop. The big-three Japanese maker distributors are Switch Science, Akizuki, and Sengoku.
  • Marutsu — A general electronics distributor.
  • M5Stack Japan (https://m5stack.com/pages/japan) — M5Stack's official Japan channel.
  • Adafruit Tokyo — Adafruit's official Japan distribution.
  • Make: Japan — Japanese-language Make: media, which also hosts Tokyo and Osaka Maker Faires.

How Korea and Japan differ

Japan has a fierce personal / doujin maker culture. M5Stack's popularity in Japan is not only about distribution — small form-factor boards make perfect bases for hobby work: cosplay accessories, tiny e-paper displays, custom indicators. Every day Twitter and Mastodon overflow with builds combining ESP32 plus e-paper plus a tiny enclosure.

Korea's strength is education and mass production. Hanbit and DeviceMart supply schools with Raspberry Pi and Arduino kits in bulk. Industrial IoT (smart factories, smart buildings) keeps steady demand for ESP32 / STM32 / Cortex-M firmware engineers.

16. Who should choose what — scenario guide

Scenario 1 — "A student or child first learning to program"

StageRecommended boardWhy
Stage 1 (week 1)BBC micro:bit v2Simplest, safest. 5x5 LED, buttons, accelerometer.
Stage 2 (1 ~ 3 months)Arduino Uno R4 MinimaC/C++ entry. Nearly every tutorial assumes it.
Stage 3 (3 ~ 6 months)Raspberry Pi Pico 2 + CircuitPythonPython entry. USB-drive file upload is intuitive.
Stage 4 (6 ~ 12 months)Raspberry Pi 5 4GBLinux / networking / server intro.

Scenario 2 — "Hobby IoT / firmware developer"

  • First board: ESP32-S3 DevKit (10)orXIAOESP32−S3(10) or XIAO ESP32-S3 (8).
  • If you need WiFi 6 / Matter: ESP32-C6 DevKit ($12).
  • If you need a display: M5Stack Core2 ($45) or Adafruit Feather + TFT FeatherWing.
  • If you need a camera: ESP32-CAM (8)orSeeedXIAOESP32−S3Sense(8) or Seeed XIAO ESP32-S3 Sense (14).

Scenario 3 — "Industrial / mass-production IoT"

  • Low-cost mass-production: ESP32-C3 (RISC-V, $2 per chip).
  • Mid-tier: ESP32-S3 plus external PSRAM ($3 per chip).
  • Premium / industrial: STM32H7 (Arduino Portenta H7) or NXP i.MX RT.
  • Certified / medical: STMicro STM32H7 plus Mbed OS plus Pelion / Murata modules.

Scenario 4 — "Edge AI / computer vision"

BudgetRecommendationWhy
Under $100Pi 5 + Coral USB AcceleratorCheapest. TFLite INT8.
$150 ~ 200Pi 5 8GB + Pi AI Kit (Hailo-8L)13 TOPS, ONNX models.
Under $500Jetson Orin Nano 8GB40 TOPS, full CUDA / TensorRT.
$1,000 +Jetson Orin NX 16GB100 TOPS, Llama 13B / Stable Diffusion XL.
$2,000 +Jetson AGX Orin 64GB275 TOPS, multimodal models.

Scenario 5 — "Learning RISC-V / curiosity"

  • MCU level: Pi Pico 2 (RP2350) with the RISC-V build, $5.
  • SBC entry: Milk-V Mars (Pi 4-compatible pinout), $40 ~ 70.
  • Desktop use: StarFive VisionFive 2 8 GB (85)orBananaPiBPI−F3(85) or Banana Pi BPI-F3 (80).
  • 64-core workstation: Milk-V Pioneer ($2,500).

Scenario 6 — "I want a laptop that lasts forever"

  • First option: Framework Laptop 13 DIY — assemble the mainboard, keyboard, case, and display yourself. Cheapest entry.
  • If you need a dGPU: Framework Laptop 16 with the Radeon RX 7700S module.
  • A pre-built Linux laptop: System76 Lemur Pro / Galago Pro, Star Labs StarBook.
  • Used ThinkPad with Linux: ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 with Pop!_OS or NixOS — half the cost of a new Framework.

Scenario 7 — "Retro gaming / handhelds"

BudgetRecommendationCompatible consoles
$50 ~ 80Anbernic RG35XX HGBA, GB, NES, SNES, Genesis
$100 ~ 150Powkiddy RGB30 (vertical) or Anbernic RG406HPartial PSP / DS / Dreamcast
$200 ~ 250Retroid Pocket 5PS2 / Wii / GameCube
$550 +Steam Deck OLEDModern PC games
$600 +OrangePi NEO 2Modern PC games and desktop use

Scenario 8 — "Educator / makerspace operator"

  • Primary (5 ~ 10 years): BBC micro:bit v2 (30-board class kit).
  • Middle school (11 ~ 15): Arduino Uno R4 with sensor kits, or M5Stack StickC PLUS 2.
  • High school (16 ~ 18): Raspberry Pi 5 4GB with a monitor and keyboard.
  • University / graduate: Jetson Orin Nano with a ROS 2 environment.

17. Closing — what open hardware actually means

The 2026 open-hardware ecosystem is not just a "hobby market." It is one branch of a technical movement to return freedom to the consumer.

  • Framework keeps its promise that "every part of this laptop can be bought and replaced." When the SoC feels slow in five years, swap only the mainboard.
  • Raspberry Pi has honored its vision for fourteen years now: "A ten-year-old can start programming on an $80 computer."
  • RISC-V SBCs demonstrate the political and technical possibility that "society can control computing without ARM or x86 licenses."
  • Adafruit / SeeedStudio / M5Stack prove that "beginner-friendly tools are compatible with powerful tools."
  • Pine64 maintains the niche promise that "real Linux on a phone, not Android or iOS, is possible."

If the start of the 2020s was the ATmega328P / RP2040 / RK3399 era, by the close of the decade we have entered the RP2350 (dual-arch) / RK3588 / SpacemiT K1 (RVV 1.0) era. That transition was driven almost entirely by the open-hardware and open-ISA communities.

A good maker buys one or two boards first, then only what is truly needed. You do not have to own all thirty-plus boards in this post. Picking the board closest to the problem you actually care about, and pushing it until you know it deeply — that has more meaning than any new board.

Good making.

References

Discuss on Twitter • View on GitHub