Radxa’s Rock Pi S is a tiny computer that’s less than half the size of a Raspberry Pi Model B. With a starting price of just $9.90, it’s also less than a third of the price.

But this single-board computer is also aimed at folks who are willing to forego some of the usual goodies… like no GPU, DisplayPort, or HDMI output.

You could use the Rock Pi S as a headline computer for IoT and/or voice applications.

First unveiled this summer, the Rock Pi S is now available for pre-order from Seeed Studio for $9.90 and up.

While the $9.90 version has just 256MB of RAM and no built-in storage, some higher-priced configurations have up to 512MB of RAM and up to 8GB of embedded NAND flash storage.

  • microSD card reader
  • USB 2.0 Type-A port
  • USB 2.0 Type-C port for power and/or data
  • 10/100 Ethernet
  • 26-pin GPIO headder
  • 26-pin voice/audio header with SPDIF, I2S, PCM, TDM, PDM, and HDMI ARC

There’s also optional support for 802.11b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 with an external antenna and/or a Power over Ethernet HAT.

Unlike a Raspberry Pi mini computer, which is arguably designed for developers and ordinary computer users alike, the Rock Pi S is clearly aimed at folks who know what to do with a headless computer that lacks a display.

I mean, technically you can connect a display — the Rock Pi S does have limited support for a Waveshare 3.5 inch LCD which connects to the SPI2 pins on the Rock Pi S if you need a display, but there’s no 2D or 3D graphics acceleration do don’t expect much in the way of graphics. So this is really a mini PC aimed at developers, makers, and other folks in the market for a tiny, cheap, IoT computer.

Also, it’s kind of cute… mostly because it’s just so tiny.

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12 replies on “Rock Pi S is a 1.7 inch square, quad-core computer priced at $10 and up”

  1. trouble with this devices are:
    POWER
    and heat procesor == POWER

    I need normal display and normal lipo connector without any interface, only plug and working offgrif for 24h

    sorry not for me

  7. I can imagine something like this as an Octoprint server, but I’d need a second USB for the camera feed…

  8. Wow, that looks pretty nice — if it supports USB Gadget mode (and a quick google says it looks likely) I can think of a few projects ideas I’d want to swap out a Pi Zero for one of these in.

  9. A translation of some of your commentary is, “If you want a real computer you’re going to have to spend at least $35!” Sometimes I love the post-Raspberry Pi world.

    1. Actually, that would be $10, given the Pi Zero W has all the connectivity you need to build a “real computer” out of.

      1. I don’t think a single-core 512MB RAM processor counts as a “real computer” these days, although the graphics capabilities put it about on par with a Pre-dual-core-pentium box.

        1. 512MB RAM? Of course it’s a real computer. My first real computer was a 2MHz 6502 and came with 32KB of RAM.

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