Radxa

Radxa Zero 3W (RK3566 Pi Zero Alternative)

Pi Zero 2 W-sized SBC on the Rockchip RK3566 quad A55 — up to 8 GB LPDDR4 and 64 GB optional eMMC with Pi-compatible 40-pin GPIO.

Check price on The Pi Hut
Single-board computer on a developer workbench representing the Radxa Zero 3W form factor
4.0/ 5
Our score
01

What we liked

  • Up to 8 GB LPDDR4 in a Pi Zero 2 W footprint — well beyond what the Pi Zero family offers
  • Optional onboard eMMC (8 GB up to 64 GB) skips microSD reliability issues for permanent installs
  • 40-pin GPIO with a Pi-compatible pinout — most HATs and ribbon-cable peripherals just work
  • Wi-Fi 5 plus Bluetooth 5.0 onboard at the £18 entry tier
  • Two USB-C ports (one USB 3.0 data, one USB 2.0 OTG that also delivers power) plus a mini-HDMI output
02

What we didn't

  • Rockchip mainline kernel support lags well behind the Raspberry Pi Foundation — expect to track Radxa's Debian/Armbian builds
  • UK stock is sporadic — the Pi Hut, Mouser UK, and OKdo carry it but variant availability swings month to month
  • Quad A55 cores at 1.6 GHz are noticeably slower than the Pi 4 / Pi 5 — this is a Zero-class replacement, not a desktop
SoC
Rockchip RK3566 — quad-core Cortex-A55 @ up to 1.6 GHz
GPU
Mali-G52 2EE (OpenGL ES 3.2 / Vulkan 1.1)
RAM
1 / 2 / 4 / 8 GB LPDDR4 (choose at purchase, not user-upgradable)
Onboard storage
Optional 0 / 8 / 16 / 32 / 64 GB eMMC (factory-soldered)
External storage
microSD slot (UHS-I)
Wireless
Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac dual-band), Bluetooth 5.0
Video out
Mini-HDMI up to 1080p60
USB
1× USB 3.0 (Type-C, data only) + 1× USB 2.0 OTG (Type-C, data + power)
Ethernet
None onboard — USB-to-Ethernet adapter or a Radxa expansion HAT required
GPIO
40-pin header, Raspberry Pi-compatible pinout
Form factor
65 × 30 mm — matches the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W
Operating systems
Debian, Ubuntu, Armbian, Radxa OS (vendor-maintained)