The Edge2 Pro is a CRAZY Powerful ARM Single Board Computer

The Edge2 Pro is a CRAZY Powerful ARM Single Board Computer

When I first looked at the Edge2 Pro by Khadas the price had be shook. $300 for a single board computer? Then I read a little further and released that this is the most powerful SBC that I have ever had the opportunity to take a look at. In this article we will be looking at the specs and seeing how the device actually preforms.

Hardware

This board is surprisingly powerful. It features a Rockchip RK3588S. This is an 8-core ARM CPU (up to 2.25GHz clock speed). x4 2.25GHz Cortex-A76 performance cores are paired with x4 1.8GHz Cortex-A55 efficiency cores. Also depending on your configuration it will have 32/64gb of EMMC storage and 8/16GB of LPDDR4X Ram.

Graphics rendering and performance will also get a boost from the integrated ARM Mali-G610 MP4 quad-core GPU clocked up to 1GHz. On their website they say it supports up to 8k encoding up to 30fps and decoding up to 60fps.

The board also has a good bit of options for the connectivity of the device. Below will be an image from their website of the I/O, but the most important things to note is there are x2 USB-C, x1 USB 2, x1 USB 3, HDMI and plugins for the Bluetooth and Wifi 6 antennas that are found in the box. One important note is there is no Ethernet option shipped with the device, but the option to add your own later.

These are shipping with a CPU fan to help with cool as it will get quite hot. Do note the wires are on fan are weak so be careful when plugging it in. I broke mine by mistake and will need to repair them.

Software

This board does not ship with an operating pre-installed, but rather a user interface for downloading and install various ARM operating systems from the cloud. The interface is called OOWOW. OOWOW is an embedded service (integrated into your device) - it can be run at any time if you need to perform essential maintenance services on your device.

No matter what you install on the EMMC storage you can access this embedded system by holding the function button and pressing restart. You will be greeted with a menu that looks similar to legacy bios. This will allow you to connect to Wifi, install and reinstall your operating system, download images, backup and restore, configure your device, access a rescue shell and more.

At the time of writing and recording there are only a few operating system choices. That being Ubuntu 22.04 both the GNOME and Server views as well as Android. I wish there was more to pick from, for example, Fedora, Arch, and other popular ARM systems. Just because there is not an easy option in this menu to install other systems does not mean this isn't possible. Here is a guide on their forums for installing Fedora Linux on their hardware.

Review

This computer is the most powerful ARM SBC I have ever used. To the point that I think it could replace the desktop computer that many people use. It is great for web browsing, media playback, and light gaming. Additionally the specs make it a great option for a small home server. The benchmarks speak for themselves.

Checkout the video below for the full rundown of the hardware and the experience using the device.