A little adorable Raspberry Pi alternative? How could anything get cuter than the original bite-sized computer board that swept the world with its countless uses and $35 price tag? We are in for a treat, because a company called FriendlyARM, based in China and known as a friend to makers, hobbyists, and fans of development boards), has announced the NanoPi Neo. The NanoPi Neo is basically a Raz Pi equivalent, but smaller, and almost cheaper (remember how the Foundation came out with a Raspberry Pi Zero for just $5 a few months back?)!

This, another Linux-based computer, running Snappy Core, looks and acts like the Raspberry Pi, is priced at under $10 bucks, and even has the name “Pi” in it. The 40mm x 40mm NanoPi Neo, which is smaller than its 65x30mm counterpart, is run on a quad-core Cortex-A7 Allwinner H3 board at 1.2GHz, just right for display-free environments. The $8 mini-computer comes with 256MG of RAM, a microSD slot, USB 2.0, micro USB for power and data, and a 10/1000 Ethernet port- something most competition does now but the Pi Zero doesn’t contain. It is as tiny as it is cute thanks to the sacrificing of an HDMI port, camera or CVBS interfaces. Plus there is no DC jack, or Raspberry Pi compatible expansion connector. However, there happens to be 36 GPIO pins in banks of 12 and 24.

Can you tell that the NanoPi Neo is basically an $8 Chinese version of the Raspberry Pi Zero, and it comes at a fantastic time, not only to compete with the most popular little computer companies ever, but these are plentifully stocked, unlike the consistently sold out Pi Zeros (have you read sources’ and customers’ accusations that the tiny Pi Zero is completely fake and a media conspiracy due to its out-of-stock percentage?)! NanoPi is something you can actually buy, despite whether or not those silly rumors are true, and it you get your hands on one, you could he holding what’s currently dubbed as the smallest quad-core ARM-based single-board computer (SBC), and one of the smallest ARM SBC’s seen ever. FriendlyARM does have another model, higher-end at a whopping $10 (that’s sarcasm), that runs the same specs but with 512MB of DDR3 RAM. For all intents and purposes, you know your options (which are nearly identical), yet FriendlyARM’s website is where you can purchase the NanoPi Neo today. You can either have the retailer ship to India for $4 extra via China Post, $14 extra via DHL Express, or via FedEx for an extra $25.