Previously the Raspberry Pi family of single-board PCs had many competitors that impacted it on different levels. Now, there is a new competitor from Pine64’s, the Quartz64.
The Quartz64 is based on the Rockchip RK3566 SoC. The SoC houses a quad-core design which is paired with an Arm Cortex-A55 CPU and a Mali-G52 2EE GPU. This low-power SoC doesn’t stand a chance against all the mobile chips but is capable of running content at 60 FPS in 4K resolution.
Back in February, with the announcement of Quartz64, Pine64 shared that the 2GB RAM will be a standard option and consumers will have the option to choose an 8 GB RAM too. However, the Quartz64 will now only launch in 4GB and 8GB configurations. The Pine64’s latest update does not reveal any plans for a cheaper 2 GB variant.
As far as the IO is concerned, the Quartz64 has abundant I/O ports. There are 3 USB 2.0 ports, 1 USB 3.0 port, SATA 3.0, eMMC slot, microSD slot, one PCIe x1 connector for expansion and a GbE. Unfortunately, it lacks onboard wireless connectivity but Pine64 offers an optional Wi-Fi 5/Bluetooth 5.0 module (SDIO 3.0). These vast connectivity options indicate that it is quite larger than the Raspberry Pi 4. It measures 5.2 inches x 3.1 inches.
In other news Pine64 shares that a “Model-B” variant is coming soon with smaller dimensions that are comparable to the existing Rock64. The Quartz64 Model-B will come with integrated Wi-Fi/Bluetooth and is a target for “education, tinkering, personal projects, and similar applications.”
The Quartz64 can be purchased from the Pine Store where the 4 GB variant is priced at $59.99 while the 8 GB will set you back by $79.99.
