There is a Raspberry Pi rival in town? No, actually, there’s a Raspberry Pi Zero W rival in town. As specific as that sounds, it will all make sense once you realize this is a specific target towards Internet of Things world and its offerings. We’ve definitely heard of the Shenzhen-based Orange Pi, after making a few waves last year by competing with the Raspberry Pi 3. However, the specific manner of competition didn't do the Orange Pi brand so well. You see, it only cost $15, a good $5 to $10 less than the Raspberry Pi versions, but it lacked Wi-Fi, which was a legitimate bummer.

So, now there is a new and improved Orange Pi model, dubbed at the Orange Pi 2G-IoT, the 2G standing for its 2G antenna for IoT applications, plus wireless LAN and Bluetooth. Another improvement is the price, at only $10, the Orange board features a 1GHz ARM Cortex-A5 32-bit processor, with a Vivante GC860 graphics processor, supported by 256MB of DDR2 RAM. There’s a microSD card on board for utilizing an additional 500MB of on-board flash storage as well. While not offering mobile access, it does support 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 (the Raspberry Pi sports the 4.1 version), and a Raspberry Pi-compatible 40-pin GPIO connector.

The open-source single-board computer supports up to 2,560 x 1,440 pixels using an LCD connector. It runs Android 4.4, Ubuntu. Debian, and Raspberry Pi Image. Again, the Orange Pi company wanted to beat the price of its rival, and for this thing to cost $10, instead of lacking Wi-Fi, there is a lack of DisplayPort, VGA, and HDMI. An LCD connector for a peripheral is included, however. Its 2G cellular modem is worth discussing as well. Something even the Raspberry Pi Foundation hasn’t included thus far, yet the Orange Pi has an this advantageous feature.

Powered over a 5V micro USB port and supporting 2G via SIM card at the bottom of the board, it does include GSM/GPRS/EDGE support for those quick data transfers, theoretically at 1Mbit/s, but more often it should perform around half that. The Orange Pi 2G-IoT can be functional for communicating over a cellular network while deployed remotely, and is basically the best test board for experimenting with IoT ideas at a lower price than ever. Available on AliExpress for $9.99 plus shipping, making the the total cost $13.49, would you agree that’s a darn good deal?