Radxa Zero 3W (RK3566 Pi Zero Alternative)
Pi Zero 2 W-sized SBC on the Rockchip RK3566 quad A55 - up to 8 GB LPDDR4 and 64 GB optional eMMC with Pi-compatible 40-pin GPIO.
4.0 / 5
★★★★★ ★★★★★ Highly recommended
Strengths
- Up to 8 GB LPDDR4 in a Pi Zero 2 W footprint - well beyond what the Pi Zero family offers
- Optional onboard eMMC (8 GB up to 64 GB) skips microSD reliability issues for permanent installs
- 40-pin GPIO with a Pi-compatible pinout - most HATs and ribbon-cable peripherals just work
Watch outs
- Rockchip mainline kernel support lags well behind the Raspberry Pi Foundation - expect to track Radxa's Debian/Armbian builds
- UK stock is sporadic - the Pi Hut, Mouser UK, and OKdo carry it but variant availability swings month to month
- Quad A55 cores at 1.6 GHz are noticeably slower than the Pi 4 / Pi 5 - this is a Zero-class replacement, not a desktop
£18.5
Typical price - check Radxa (official) for live pricing.
- SoC Rockchip RK3566 - quad-core Cortex-A55 @ up to 1.6 GHz
- GPU Mali-G52 2EE (OpenGL ES 3.2 / Vulkan 1.1)
- RAM 1 / 2 / 4 / 8 GB LPDDR4 (choose at purchase, not user-upgradable)
- Onboard storage Optional 0 / 8 / 16 / 32 / 64 GB eMMC (factory-soldered)
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By Editorial team2 min read
- SoC
- Rockchip RK3566 - quad-core Cortex-A55 @ up to 1.6 GHz
- GPU
- Mali-G52 2EE (OpenGL ES 3.2 / Vulkan 1.1)
- RAM
- 1 / 2 / 4 / 8 GB LPDDR4 (choose at purchase, not user-upgradable)
- Onboard storage
- Optional 0 / 8 / 16 / 32 / 64 GB eMMC (factory-soldered)
- External storage
- microSD slot (UHS-I)
- Wireless
- Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac dual-band), Bluetooth 5.0
- Video out
- Mini-HDMI up to 1080p60
- USB
- 1× USB 3.0 (Type-C, data only) + 1× USB 2.0 OTG (Type-C, data + power)
- Ethernet
- None onboard - USB-to-Ethernet adapter or a Radxa expansion HAT required
- GPIO
- 40-pin header, Raspberry Pi-compatible pinout
- Form factor
- 65 × 30 mm - matches the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W
- Operating systems
- Debian, Ubuntu, Armbian, Radxa OS (vendor-maintained)