FriendlyELEC has launched the NanoPi NEO3 Plus, a tiny headless single-board computer built around the Rockchip RK3528A system-on-chip. The 4.8 cm (1.9 inches) square board packs a quad-core Cortex-A53 processor running at 2.0 GHz, 1GB of LPDDR4 RAM, Gigabit Ethernet, and a USB 3.0 port into a design that weighs just 21.5 grams without the optional metal enclosure.
The NanoPi NEO3 Plus succeeds the NanoPi NEO3 from 2020, which used the older Rockchip RK3328 running at 1.5 GHz. Beyond the faster processor, the new model adds support for optional eMMC flash modules (64GB or 256GB), an RTC battery connector, a stereo speaker output via 4-pin connector, and a MASK button for firmware updates. The board can boot from microSD or eMMC and includes a 26-pin GPIO header with I2C, UART, SPI, and I2S interfaces for expansion.
FriendlyELEC provides software images based on Linux 6.1 LTS including Debian 13 Core, Ubuntu Core 24.04, OpenMediaVault for NAS applications, Proxmox VE for virtualization, and FriendlyWrt 24.10/23.05 (OpenWrt forks). The board operates within 0°C to 80°C (32°F to 176°F) and measures 5.4 cm x 5.3 cm x 2.5 cm (2.1 inches x 2.1 inches x 1.0 inch) with the black metal case installed, bringing total weight to 87.2 grams.
The NanoPi NEO3 Plus is available now for $24 (€22), with the metal case adding $8 (€7) and optional eMMC modules priced at $23 (€21) for 64GB or $61 (€56) for 256GB. Pricing excludes shipping.
