Radxa ZERO 3W.... So many mixed feelings, so many hours... wasted?

Summary

The video reviews the Radxa ZERO 3W as a capable but frustrating single-board computer. Its hardware impressed the reviewer, but the supplied software and documentation led to several days of troubleshooting.

Hardware and features

• Based on the RK3566 quad-core processor with an ARM G52 GPU. The tested model has 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of eMMC, and a microSD slot.
• Supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4, despite the box listing older specifications. It has an onboard antenna and an external antenna connection, selectable through a software overlay.
• Includes a four-lane MIPI CSI camera connector, micro-HDMI output, USB-C host connectivity, USB 2.0 OTG for power or data, and GPIO headers.
• The GPU supports hardware video encoding and decoding. HDMI output is limited to 1080p, which the reviewer found disappointing.
• The board can throttle at around 80°C. A small fan substantially improved benchmark performance, by nearly 20% in the reviewer’s tests.

Setup guide and testing

The reviewer demonstrates flashing Debian to the onboard eMMC:

1. Connect USB-C while holding the MASKROM button.
2. Use Rockchip’s flashing tool and the appropriate loader.
3. Select an image, choose eMMC, and enable Write by address.

The guide notes that a sufficiently recent version of the flashing tool and the correct USB drivers may be necessary. The reviewer found Radxa’s instructions unclear.

The board drew about 1.15 W during one test and roughly 220 mA at idle. The reviewer also explored rsetup, Radxa’s configuration utility, which provides overlays for features such as cameras, antenna selection, and interface options.

Issues and verdict

• The stock software experience was poor: the desktop and browser felt sluggish, and the default graphics drivers supported OpenGL ES rather than full OpenGL.
• According to the reviewer, Radxa’s instructions for switching to Panfrost graphics drivers were incorrect for this board. The reviewer eventually created custom Debian images that ran better and used Panfrost with a newer Mesa version.
• Wi-Fi performance was very poor during testing. The reviewer found a Radxa firmware fix but had not yet applied it.
• An ENC28J60 Ethernet overlay appeared to initialize but did not establish working network communication.
• The reviewer could not connect a 4K camera because its cable did not match the board’s connector setup.

Overall, the reviewer considered the ZERO 3W powerful and useful, especially with a fan and a better software image, and rated it above the Raspberry Pi Zero. However, they would not recommend it to inexperienced users because of the software and documentation problems.

Main speaker and sources

• Main speaker: The host of Platima Tinkers, presenting the review and hands-on tests.
• Referenced sources: Radxa’s wiki, release notes, and documentation; Rockchip’s flashing utility; and the reviewer’s custom image repository.