Orange Pi One

Overview

The Orange Pi One is one of Xunlong's most affordable single-board computers, designed for makers who need a functional Linux board at minimal cost. It is built around the Allwinner H3 SoC, a quad-core Cortex-A7 processor clocked at up to 1.6GHz with an integrated Mali-400 MP2 GPU. The board ships with 512MB DDR3 RAM — sufficient for headless server tasks, lightweight IoT applications, and learning Linux on real hardware.

Storage is handled entirely by a microSD card slot; there is no onboard eMMC. Networking is provided by a 100Mbps (Fast Ethernet) port, with no wireless networking built in. The board includes a single USB 2.0 host port, a USB OTG port, HDMI output, a 3.5mm audio jack, a CSI camera connector, and a 40-pin GPIO header compatible with Raspberry Pi HATs.

Armbian fully supports the Orange Pi One with kernel 6.12 images, desktop (XFCE) and minimal/IoT variants, making it a well-maintained platform despite its age. Its ultra-low cost, combined with solid Armbian support, makes the Orange Pi One an excellent entry point for embedded Linux experimentation, lightweight home servers, and educational projects.