The Banana Pi is a mini-computer with a highly compact design. In a Banana Pi, all the important components of a full-fledged computer are found on a single circuit board that is barely bigger than a business card. In addition to the central processor and memory, it has basic interfaces such as a USB port ensuring that this single-board computer can be extended and additional hardware can be connected (e.g. monitors, hard drives, memory cards and WLAN antennas).
A micro-USB charger, also used for smartphones, is enough to cover its low power requirements. In terms of price, this piece of hardware usually does not exceed $100. Many models cost significantly less (starting at about $20). The boards are delivered in their original state - cases usually cost extra. However, one disadvantage of cases is that they can make modular expansion difficult or even impossible.
Those looking to successfully implement Banana Pi projects and to make the right choice in terms of practical applications will run into a somewhat confusing hardware selection. The first single-board computers were brought to market under the name “Banana Pi” in 2014 by the educational initiative LeMaker.org. Soon after, the Chinese technology company SinoVoip presented its first model “BPI-M1”. Since then, the two manufacturers have been competing in this market segment and have both declared themselves to be the “official” manufacturers.
LeMaker focuses on the two basic models of Banana Pi and the follow-up Banana Pi Pro and offers extensions for it. In contrast, SinoVoip offers more differentiation in its range. In other words, they provide different models for specific applications (e.g. smart homes, network routers, industrial applications). In addition, the SinoVoip models are modularly extendable.
You can get a good overview of the Banana Pi product line by checking its dedicated page on Wikipedia. The Tanna TechBiz YouTube channel presents some models and their hardware components in video format.
When buying a model from the product line, you need to consider more than just the hardware components and performance that would be right for your Banana Pi project. Extendability can also be important depending on what you plan to do with the Banana Pi. For example, the Banana Pi M2 Berry is compatible with Raspberry Pi peripherals and supports its extension boards.
You will also need a suitable operating system for your Banana Pi projects. This is stored on a microSD card which is connected to the computer via a designated interface (a slot). In addition to Android, various Linux versions run on this single-board computer, some of which are specifically designed for Banana Pi hardware (e.g. openSUSE, Arch Linux and Lubuntu for Banana Pi). Among the Banana Pi images available for download are Bananian and Raspbian, both of which are Debian-based operating systems.
The following video demonstrates how to get started with a Banana Pi (installation of the operating system, etc.):