More from FriendlyArm – this time the NanoPi M2. I’ve had this board running both Debian and Android – but first – a little about the boards. Like the M1 these are small – around 65mm by 60mm so much smaller than Raspberry Pi. They are also cheaper than the Pi but but this time more powerful than the M1 and most likely the Pi, also.
Unlike the M1, the board comes with a connector for FriendlyArm’s touch-LCD display and also unlike the M1 which comes with an awful Android with no Play Store, this one is a 5.11 version with full playstore. I’ve tried it with BBC video and it runs flat out 
so I have no doubt this would make a media centre for anyone interested. Indeed I’m waiting for a wireless keyboard/mouse arrangement turning up and one of these might just end up as a media centre.
The board has 2 USBs connectors and it has 0.1” connectors on board for a further two. It has up to 1GBPS Ethernet connection, audio jack, microphone, camera connector, standard HDMI out and a microSD slot on the underside. Mine came with 1GB RAM. There is also a header for a serial console.
The processor is a Samsung S5P4418 quad core Cortex A9 running between 400Mhz and 1.4Ghz. There is also a Mali GPU. I’ve not yet done speed tests but I’d expect this to give the Pi a run for it’s money – again – how they compare depends on postal charges in your area.
My next step will be to install my usual software script on this board in Debian and we’ll see then how easy or otherwise it is to get port and serial access. Keep looking in.
I bought an another switch Netgear Gs-205 and i still have the same upload problem. Have you tested your M2 on a switch with an automatic Qos ? I think it’s a priority problem, idk how the switch decide the Qos rules but the M2 seems to be bad configured for that(or maybe it’s power saving thing). I’ve also found a guy who have exacly the same prob: http://superuser.com/questions/258067/1000-mbit-switch-slows-down-upload-speed-from-mediacenter
I’ve no response from the support but I found the root of the problem, it’s my switch D-link DGS-108 which block the upload from the NanoPi, idk why, maybe because of the Qos
Not gotten that far yet. I’m still working on getting full memory access to the T3 – the image for Android comes as an 8GB images and the guys at FriendlyArm have yet to tell me how to successfully expand it – as it’s sitting on a 32GB microSD chip – 8GB is about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike for Android.
Ho ok, it’s interesting to know because i will maybe buy a T2/T3 if the eMMC change something but i don’t really know if it does. I’ve contacted the support for my problem, i will say if there is something new
I’ve recieved my mine the same week : )
So have you tested the module with samba or other servers ? From my side i’ve tested samba(on debian) and i’ve a big problem for acces to the files, i can see the NanoPi on Windows but it take so much time to acces to the files and it’s impossible to read a vidéo, and when i want to past a file, there is no problem…. I’ve reinstalled debian or samba and the problem still here. I’ve noticed sometimes the web browser on debian(few time on Android also) was slow or it take time to have internet back(but Debian show it’s connected to internet).
I tested Android, created a ftp server and there is the same prob, so i think there is something wrong with the upstream, the speedtest.net confirm that; during 90% the upstream speed is around 0 and just at the end it go to the normal speed, it’s anormal… /: