The Indiedroid Nova is a single-board computer that looks almost identical to a Raspberry Pi 4. But it has a higher-performance processor, a slightly different set of ports, and… a significantly higher starting price.
On the bright side, that starting price is for a bundle that also includes a full-body heat sink, a fan, and eMMC storage. The Indiedroid Nova is available from Ameridroid for $145 and up. You can also use the coupon code on the page to save an extra 10%.
The little computer features a Rockchip RK3588S processor featuring four ARM Cortex-A76 CPU cores, four Cortex-A55 cores, ARM Mali-G610 graphics, a video processing unit that can decode videos at up to 8K/60fps and an neural processing unit for up to 6 TOPs of AI performance.
Entry-level models will ship with 4GB of LPDDR4x memory and 32GB of eMMC 5.1 storage, but the manufacturer also supports as little as 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage, and as much as 32GB of LPDDR5x memory and 128GB of eMMC storage so it’s possible those options could be offered in the future.
Ports and connectors include:
- 1 x micro HDMI 2.1
- 1 x USB Type-C (with DisplayPort Alt Mode)
- 2 x USB 3.0 Type-A
- 2 x USB 2.0 Type-A
- 1 x Gigabit Ethernet
- 1 x microSD card reader
- 1 x 3.5mm audio
- 40-pin Raspberry Pi-compatible GPIO connector
- MIPI-CSI camera connector
- MIPI-DSI display connector
There’s also an BL-M88821 WiFi 5 & Bluetooth 5.0 module and a support for a 5V/3A power supply that connects to the computer’s USB-C port.
The Indiedroid Nova measures 85 x 56mm, making it the same size as a Raspberry Pi, so it could effectively be a drop-in replacement in some circumstances. Of course, since it has a different processor, not all Raspberry Pi software will run on the Indiedroid Nova, and vice versa.
But it looks like there’s a pretty wide range of software that should run on this little computer, including builds of desktop GNU/Linux distributions including Arch, Debian, Ubuntu, Armbian, and Devuan as well as more purpose-built operating systems like Batocera (for game console emulation) and Kali (for security research and ethical hacking).
As CNX Software points out, the Indiedroid Nova isn’t exactly a new single-board computer. It’s basically the same hardware as the 9tripod Pico Pi V2.0 that launched in China earlier this year. But the makers of that board have partnered with Ameridroid to become the global distributor of the board, which is now marketed under the Indiedroid name and bundled with the aforementioned heat sink and fan.
I really like that they placed the SOC on the top side of the PCB.
Some Pi-clone makers are putting the SOC on the bottom these days, and that makes them incompatible with most Raspberry Pi cases, as they need a specific case that acts as a heatsink (which defeats the purpose of designing a board with a standardized form-factor).
Thanks for covering this! We just wanted to clarify that the Nova is shipping now.
Thanks. The “latest news” section of the website says that on April 11th you’d be “spot-checking the units before updating the site marking them as ready for immediate shipment,” and since there were no updates after that, I mistakenly thought that meant they were still in the pre-order stage.
I’ve updated the article to correct that!