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by 3xblah 2688 days ago
This is a provocative comment although it begs the question:

Can you easily run OpenWRT on Orange PI 3 immediately after purchase?

If not, I think that could be a factor in why someone might pay more. They might want to leverage the work of OpenWRT developers.

I too recently picked up another pocket-sized SBC with Gigabit Ethernet. Compared to Orange Pi 3 it has two additional Ethernet ports, better antennas (no dongle needed), more TF card storage (128GB vs 64GB), well-tested OpenWRT support and everything to build from scratch is on Github. Like Orange Pi 3 it uses U-boot and one can easily recover from accidental bricking without opening it up.

Also has customer support, automatic updates and an additional GUI which are not things I needed but probably increased the price.

Orange Pi 3 has a GPU, HDMI port and jacks for audio and composite video. Is the buyer intending to "build a custom router" paying for specs she does not need?

What is the estimated power consumption for Orange Pi 3?

What are some examples of "overpriced routers"?

Imagine for the sake of argument we posted specs for various SBC's here without giving the "brand name" and let readers bid on what they would be willing to pay. Assuming readers could not see each others' bids, how widely would the bids vary?

Is each spec worth the same to each buyer? Do all buyers have exactly the same needs?

1 comments

> I too recently picked up another pocket-sized SBC with Gigabit Ethernet. Compared to Orange Pi 3 it has two additional Ethernet ports, better antennas (no dongle needed), more TF card storage (128GB vs 64GB) and well-tested OpenWRT support.

What is it that you purchased?

I had the same reaction. This was one of the strangest omissions. I was certain there was going to be a neat plot twist at the end...
I like GL.iNet routers: small, inexpensive and come with OpenWRT. I was very happy with my AR300M until it started getting unstable after a few months: need to hard reboot it every couple of days. Not sure if I'm unlucky or if it's inherent to inexpensive routers.