
Raspberry Pi have pushed out a fresh [Raspberry Pi OS](https://sbc.compare/raspberry-pi) update, dated 18 June 2026, and whilst it's not the sort of release that's going to set the world alight, there are a couple of things in here worth flagging. The headline for me is the kernel jump, but there's also more Wayland progress, a batch of new icons, and the usual round of bug fixes. Let's get into it.

## A Big Kernel Jump

The one that caught my eye is the move to Linux kernel 6.18.34, up from the 6.12 LTS series the previous images shipped with. Going from 6.12 LTS to 6.18 is a decent leap in kernel terms, and it's the sort of change that tends to bring tangible benefits even if you won't necessarily notice them on the desktop day to day. Newer kernels generally mean better hardware support, updated drivers, scheduler improvements and the odd performance gain in specific areas. Exactly how much of that filters through to your particular workload is anyone's guess, so your mileage may vary, but on the whole it's good to see the Pi keeping reasonably current on the kernel front.

There's also a Raspberry Pi firmware bump (commit `09267f5354d40519d82fbd2193b9e211ec304055`) riding along with it, which is par for the course with these releases.

## More Wayland Progress

The other change worth calling out is labwc being upgraded to version 0.9.7. labwc is the Wayland compositor Raspberry Pi have settled on as the way forward, and seeing it tick along to a newer release is a good sign that they're staying committed to it rather than letting it stagnate. Wayland has been the default on the Pi for a while now, and steady compositor updates like this are how the experience gets gradually smoother and less rough around the edges.

It's not a dramatic change in isolation, but it's the kind of steady, unglamorous maintenance that keeps a desktop in good shape over time.

## The Full Changelog

The rest of the release is mostly tidying, new icons and bug fixes. Here's the changelog in full, straight from the [release notes](https://downloads.raspberrypi.com/raspios_arm64/release_notes.txt):

- New icons for toolbars in various applications (LibreOffice, geany, xarchiver, eom)
- New icon for Recommended Software
- Use DBus to prevent multiple instances of various applications (pishutdown, rpcc, agnostics, bookshelf, gui-runcmd, rp-prefapps, piclone)
- Allow larger icon sizes in lxpanel
- Tidying and bug fixing of libxml code in Control Centre plugins
- Added new default touchscreen associations
- labwc upgraded to version 0.9.7
- Removed python3-flask
- Bug fix: lockup in Printers plugin when closing
- Bug fix: incorrect selection of input audio device in volume plugin
- Bug fix: keyboard activation of top-level items in Main Menu
- Bug fix: missing application close handler when closing window in piclone
- Polish translations included
- Raspberry Pi firmware `09267f5354d40519d82fbd2193b9e211ec304055`
- Linux kernel 6.18.34 (`c8c7494100e99ee05b11aaa4f0588a223a63d1af`)

## Should You Update?

For most people, yes, eventually. There's nothing in this release that screams "drop everything and update right now", but the kernel jump alone makes it worth grabbing when you next get the chance, and the bug fixes are welcome. As always, if you're running anything mission-critical, it's worth letting an update like this settle for a few days and keeping an eye out for any reports of regressions before you pull the trigger (touch wood, kernel jumps usually go smoothly on the Pi, but it pays to be cautious).

You can grab the latest images from the [Raspberry Pi OS downloads page](https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/operating-systems/). If you want a broader look at what runs on the Pi, I've covered the various options in my [Raspberry Pi 5 operating systems](https://bret.dk/raspberry-pi-5-operating-systems/) piece, and there's plenty more on the board itself in my full [Raspberry Pi 5 review](https://bret.dk/raspberry-pi-5-review/).

It's a modest release on the face of it, but the move to Linux 6.18 and the continued labwc work are the kind of foundations that matter more than any single flashy feature, and I'm glad to see Raspberry Pi keeping things ticking over.


The June 2026 Raspberry Pi OS update jumps to the Linux 6.18 kernel, bumps labwc to 0.9.7 for Wayland, refreshes app icons and squashes a pile of bugs.

Raspberry Pi OS Update Brings Linux 6.18, labwc 0.9.7 and a Fresh Coat of Icons


[Orange Pi](https://sbc.compare/orange-pi) have quietly put up a product page for the Orange Pi 6, a [CIX P1](https://sbc.compare/cix-p1) board that slots in just below the Orange Pi 6 Plus we've already had on the bench. It's an interesting one, mostly because of the timing, but we'll get to that. If you've been following the high-end ARM SBC space at all, the CIX P1 silicon will already be familiar to you, and this is Orange Pi's second board built around it. Let's get into what's actually on offer here, and where it sits next to its bigger sibling.

![Orange Pi 6 single-board computer, side view](https://sbc.compare/img/boards/orange-pi-6/orange-pi-6-side-view.webp)
*The Orange Pi 6 from the side, dual M.2 NVMe slots and all.*

## The CIX P1 Again

The Orange Pi 6 runs the same CIX P1 (CD8180) SoC as the 6 Plus, so the core silicon story is unchanged. You're getting a 12-core 64-bit chip in a tri-cluster arrangement: 4x Cortex-A720 big cores, 4x Cortex-A720 medium cores, and 4x Cortex-A520 LITTLE cores. Graphics are handled by an Arm Immortalis-G720 MC10 with Vulkan 1.3, OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 3.0 and hardware ray-tracing, which is a properly capable GPU by SBC standards.

The headline figure, because there always is one these days, is the AI performance. Orange Pi quote 28.8 TOPS from the dedicated NPU and 45 TOPS total across the CPU, GPU and NPU combined. That's the same 45 TOPS total that the 6 Plus advertises, which makes sense given they're running identical silicon. As ever, comparing TOPS figures across vendors is a bit of a mug's game, so I'd take that number with the usual pinch of salt until there's some real-world inference testing to back it up.

## Orange Pi 6 Specifications

| Spec | Detail |
|------|--------|
| **SoC** | CIX P1 (CD8180) |
| **CPU** | 4x Cortex-A720 (big) + 4x Cortex-A720 (medium) + 4x Cortex-A520 (LITTLE) |
| **GPU** | Arm Immortalis-G720 MC10 |
| **NPU** | 28.8 TOPS NPU / 45 TOPS total |
| **RAM** | 8GB / 16GB / 24GB LPDDR5 (128-bit, up to 6400MT/s) |
| **Storage** | 2x M.2 Key-M 2280 NVMe (PCIe 4.0 x4), MicroSD, 64Mbit SPI flash |
| **Ethernet** | 2x 2.5GbE |
| **Wireless** | Optional Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth 5.4 via M.2 Key-E |
| **Display** | DisplayPort 1.4 (4K@120Hz), HDMI 2.0 (4K@60Hz), eDP, 2x USB-C DP |
| **Camera** | 2x 4-lane MIPI-CSI |
| **USB** | 2x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0, 2x Type-C 3.0 full-function, USB 2.0 header |
| **GPIO** | 40-pin header (UART, I²C, SPI, PWM) |
| **Power** | Dual Type-C PD 20V (65W/100W adapters) |
| **Dimensions** | 90 x 90mm, 106g |
| **OS** | OpenHarmony, Debian, Ubuntu, Android, Windows, ROS 2 |

## Orange Pi 6 vs 6 Plus: What's the Difference?

This is the bit that matters, because on paper the two boards are awfully similar. Same SoC, same GPU, same NPU, the same dual M.2 NVMe storage, and the same set of display outputs. The differences come down to two things that will matter a great deal to some of you and not at all to others.

![Orange Pi 6 labelled top-down view showing ports and connectors](https://sbc.compare/img/boards/orange-pi-6/orange-pi-6-labelled-top-view.webp)
*A labelled top-down look at the Orange Pi 6, including those two 2.5GbE ports.*

| Spec | Orange Pi 6 | Orange Pi 6 Plus |
|------|-------------|------------------|
| **SoC** | CIX P1 (CD8180) | CIX P1 (CD8180) |
| **RAM options** | 8 / 16 / **24GB** | **32 / 64GB** |
| **Ethernet** | 2x **2.5GbE** | 2x **5GbE** |
| **GPU** | Immortalis-G720 MC10 | Immortalis-G720 MC10 |
| **NPU** | 45 TOPS total | 45 TOPS total |
| **Storage** | 2x M.2 NVMe (PCIe 4.0 x4) | 2x M.2 NVMe (PCIe 4.0 x4) |
| **Power** | Dual-C PD (65W/100W) | Dual-C PD 100W |
| **Price** | Not yet announced | ~$260 (32GB) |

So the two real differentiators are RAM and networking. The 6 tops out at 24GB of LPDDR5, whilst the 6 Plus starts where the 6 finishes and climbs all the way to 64GB. On the network side, the 6 gives you dual 2.5GbE, whereas the 6 Plus steps up to dual 5GbE. Everything else is, as far as the spec sheets tell us, identical.

## A Slightly Odd Time For It

Here's what I find curious about all this. The Orange Pi 6 Plus turned up back in October 2025, and we got the 32GB model on the bench (you can see the full specs and benchmarks on its [sbc.compare page](https://sbc.compare/91-orange-pi-6-plus-32gb)). Normally you'd expect the cheaper, more cut-down model to lead the charge and the premium variant to follow on later for the people who want to spend more. Orange Pi have done it the other way round, launching the bigger, faster, more expensive Plus first and only now filling in the more modest 6 underneath it.

It's not the end of the world, and I can see the logic if the Plus was the halo product they wanted to lead with, but it does make the 6 feel a touch like an afterthought arriving a good eight months late. The 24GB RAM ceiling is the part that gives me pause. If you're the sort of person drawn to a 45 TOPS, 12-core board with dual NVMe slots, there's a fair chance you'd also appreciate more than 24GB to play with, and that's exactly the point where you're nudged towards the Plus instead.

The drop from 5GbE to 2.5GbE is easier to justify. Dual 2.5GbE is still plenty for the vast majority of use cases, whether that's a NAS, a router project, or just a board that needs a couple of fast links. 5GbE is lovely to have, but you need the rest of your network to keep up with it before it earns its keep, and not many home setups do.

## Pricing and Availability

No price has been announced for the Orange Pi 6 yet, which is a bit of a shame as it's the single most important detail for working out whether this board makes sense. The 6 Plus 32GB sits at around $260, so the 6 needs to come in meaningfully below that to justify its existence given the lower RAM ceiling and slower networking. If it lands too close to the Plus, I'm not sure who it's really for. If Orange Pi price it sensibly, though, it could be a tidy little entry point into CIX P1 territory for people who don't need 64GB of RAM or 5GbE.

I'll update this once pricing firms up, and the plan is to get one benchmarked on sbc.compare so we can see how it stacks up against the Plus and the rest of the high-end field. In the meantime, our [Raspberry Pi 5 vs Orange Pi 6 Plus comparison](https://sbc.compare/1-raspberry-pi-5-8gb/91-orange-pi-6-plus-32gb) gives you a decent feel for what the CIX P1 brings to the table over the board everyone already knows.

## My Take

The Orange Pi 6 is a perfectly sensible board on paper, and the CIX P1 is genuinely capable silicon. My only real hesitation is working out where it fits. It's the same chip, the same GPU and the same NPU as the 6 Plus, with the only meaningful cuts being RAM and networking, so the whole thing hinges entirely on price. Get that right and it's an easy recommendation for people who want a CIX P1 board without paying for headroom they'll never use. Get it wrong and the Plus simply swallows it whole.

If you're weighing up where these boards land against the wider field, it's worth a look at my [Orange Pi 5 Plus review](https://bret.dk/orange-pi-5-plus-review/) for where Orange Pi's flagship sat last generation (and the [5 Plus vs 6 Plus comparison](https://sbc.compare/81-orange-pi-5-plus-8gb/91-orange-pi-6-plus-32gb) shows just how far the CIX P1 has moved things on), and the ever-present [Raspberry Pi 5 review](https://bret.dk/raspberry-pi-5-review/) for the board everything else still gets measured against. For something in the same high-end weight class, my [Radxa Dragon Q8B](https://bret.dk/radxa-dragon-q8b-a-laptop-cosplaying-as-an-sbc/) piece is worth a read, and if you fancy the bigger picture, here's [every single-board computer I tested in 2025](https://bret.dk/every-single-board-computer-i-tested-in-2025/).

For now, the Orange Pi 6 is one to keep an eye on rather than rush out for, and the moment a price lands and I can get one on the bench, I'll have a much clearer idea of whether it's the sensible cheaper option or a board that the Plus has already made redundant.


The Orange Pi 6 lands below the 6 Plus with the same CIX P1 silicon, up to 24GB RAM and dual 2.5GbE. Here's how the two compare, and why the timing is odd.

Orange Pi 6 Arrives With the CIX P1, Dual 2.5GbE and Up to 24GB RAM


[Orange Pi](http://www.orangepi.org/) has closed out 2025 with details on the Orange Pi AI Station, a 130x130mm edge AI platform built around Huawei's Ascend 310 series processor. With 176 TOPS of claimed AI compute performance and memory configurations up to 96GB, this sits between their earlier AI Pro 8T SBC and the AI Studio boxes in their expanding Ascend-based lineup.

## Orange Pi's AI Product Expansion

This marks Orange Pi's third Ascend-based product in under a year (if you count the introduction of the AI Pro 8T to a non-Chinese market at the beginning of the year as a new launch) followed by the AI Studio and AI Studio Pro USB4 boxes in September offering 176 and 352 TOPS respectively. The AI Station slots in between these, matching the AI Studio's 176 TOPS while keeping the board-level format factor.

The form factor is a 130x130mm square board, larger than typical SBCs, and it ships with what appears to be the same heatsink and fan combination used on the [Orange Pi 6 Plus](https://sbc.compare/91-orange-pi-6-plus-32gb), which makes sense given the thermal requirements of the Ascend 310.

## What We're Looking At

At the heart of the board is Huawei's Ascend 310 series chip, bringing 16 general-purpose cores (maxing out at 1.9GHz) alongside dedicated AI hardware in the form of 10 cores for AI workloads and 8 vector processing cores. The 176 TOPS marketing number sounds impressive, though what you'll actually get depends on your models and how well the Ascend toolchain supports them.
![An annotated overhead view of the Orange Pi AI Station SBC](/img/orange-pi-ai-station/orange-pi-ai-station-top-down-view-annotations.webp)
On the memory side, you're looking at either 48GB or 96GB of LPDDR4X. That's proper capacity for running larger models locally. Storage options are the usual spread. Tehere's an M.2 slot taking 2280 NVMe drives over PCIe 4.0 x4, eMMC support if you want onboard storage up to 256GB, a microSD card reader (data only, won't boot), and 16MB of SPI flash for the bootloader.

## Connectivity and I/O

Networking is handled by dual Gigabit Ethernet ports and built-in Wi-Fi 5 with Bluetooth 4.2. The wireless is single-stream 802.11ac, so it's not going to set any speed records, but it covers the bases.

For peripherals, there are three USB 3.0 Type-A ports. Orange Pi specs these at 1A current limiting, so keep that in mind if you're planning to power hungry devices. Video output goes through a single HDMI port capped at 1080p60, which is fine given this isn't really aimed at desktop use. Audio gets a 3.5mm jack.
![Side view of Orange Pi AI Studio I/O Connectivity](/img/orange-pi-ai-station/orange-pi-ai-station-io-connectors.webp)

The 40-pin header brings out GPIO along with I2C, SPI, PWM, and UART if you need to interface with other hardware. There's a fan header for the included active cooler, power and reset buttons, and the typical status LEDs. Power comes in via a 5.5mm barrel jack at 12V/10A, with the adapter included.

## Software Support and Ecosystem

The official OS is openEuler 22.03, and Orange Pi says it'll run common open-source LLMs like the DeepSeek and Llama families. Whether that actually works smoothly is another question as the Ascend ecosystem doesn't have the polish of NVIDIA's CUDA stack or even the newer Hailo tools.

Right now the Downloads section on Orange Pi's product page is empty so we have no clues there, however it’s not unusual for a new Orange Pi product announcement. It does mean early buyers will be sitting around waiting for software before they can do anything useful.

If you're considering this board, check whether your specific use case and models have good Ascend support first. The hardware looks capable enough, but software maturity is going to determine whether this is actually usable for your workload.

## What Makes This Interesting

The AI Station fills a gap in Orange Pi's lineup between the more compact AI Pro 8T and the bulkier AI Studio boxes. If you want serious compute (176 TOPS) but don't need the dual-chip setup of the AI Studio Pro, this gives you a board-level option with standard mounting holes and GPIO access.
![](/img/orange-pi-ai-station/orange-pi-ai-station-angled-top-view.webp)

The dual Gigabit Ethernet setup opens up some interesting use cases too, whether that's handling multiple camera streams for computer vision applications or acting as a network appliance with AI processing capabilities.

Pricing hasn't been announced yet, and Orange Pi's usual sales channels (AliExpress and Amazon) don't have listings up at the moment. The AI Studio starts around $955 for 48GB RAM, so expect the AI Station to undercut that given it's a single-chip board without the USB4 enclosure. Where it lands relative to the AI Pro 8T (which starts much lower) will determine whether this makes sense for most buyers.

## My Thoughts

Orange Pi has moved quickly on Ascend hardware this year, going from the AI Pro 8T to the AI Studio boxes and now this AI Station in under 12 months. That's a lot of SKUs to support, and it'll be interesting to see if they can keep the software side updated across all of them.

The AI Station makes sense as a product. There's clearly a gap between an 8 TOPS SBC and a $1900+ dual-chip box. Whether the market exists for a 176 TOPS board-level option at whatever price Orange Pi lands on remains to be seen.
![](/img/orange-pi-ai-station/orange-pi-ai-station-angled-top-view-with-cooler.webp)

For those already invested in Huawei's AI ecosystem or looking to experiment with alternatives to NVIDIA's platform, this adds another option to consider. For everyone else, it might be worth waiting to see how software support develops across Orange Pi's growing Ascend lineup and what the actual pricing looks like.

I won't be rushing out to test one of these immediately, but if the software situation improves and the pricing is reasonable, it could be an interesting option for specific AI inference workloads. As always, hardware is only half the story.

More information is available on the [Orange Pi AI Station product page](http://www.orangepi.org/html/hardWare/computerAndMicrocontrollers/details/Orange-Pi-AI-Station.html), though in-depth documentation is still pending.


Orange Pi expands on its position in the AI computing space with the AI Station, featuring Huawei's Ascend 310 processor delivering 176 TOPS across 16 CPU cores and 10 AI cores.

Orange Pi AI Station Launches with Ascend 310 and 176 TOPS Performance


Raspberry Pi announced a new 1GB Pi 5 model today at $45, alongside price increases across several Pi 4 and Pi 5 variants due to rising LPDDR4 memory costs.

## What's New

The 1GB Pi 5 brings the same 2.4GHz quad-core processor, dual-band Wi-Fi, and PCIe connectivity to a lower price point. It's now available and will be added to the comparison database shortly.

## Price Changes

**Raspberry Pi 4:**
- 4GB: $55 → $60
- 8GB: $75 → $85

**Raspberry Pi 5:**
- 1GB: $45 (new)
- [2GB](https://sbc.compare/10-raspberry-pi-5-2gb): $50 → $55
- [4GB](https://sbc.compare/14-raspberry-pi-5-4gb): $60 → $70
- [8GB](https://sbc.compare/1-raspberry-pi-5-8gb): $80 → $95
- [16GB](https://sbc.compare/3-raspberry-pi-5-16gb): $120 → $145

All pricing on sbc.compare has been updated to reflect these changes. The smaller RAM configurations across the Pi 4 models, Pi 3+ and earlier boards and Pi Zero remain unchanged.

Raspberry Pi attributes the increases to memory supply constraints driven by AI demand.

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*Questions or feedback? [Get in touch](mailto:bret@sbc.compare) or check out our [comparison tool](/browse).*


The Raspberry Pi 5 gets a 1GB RAM variant, and the rest of the Pi 5 range gets price increases. Thanks AI.

Raspberry Pi 5 Gets 1GB Model, and Price Increases For The Rest



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*Questions or feedback? [Get in touch](mailto:bret@sbc.compare) or check out our [comparison tool](/).*


How are things looking after a month of SBC comparisons on sbc.compare?

One Month Of SBC Comparisons


It's nothing fancy, but it's mine!

This blog will serve as a hub for all of the website updates, quick guides on how to use the website, and any newsworthy things I feel like I should share with you!

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*Questions or feedback? [Get in touch](mailto:bret@sbc.compare) or check out our [comparison tool](/).*


Introducing the new sbc.compare blog, where the latest news, changelogs, and updates to our sbc comparison tool will be available.

Welcome to the sbc.compare Blog

Latest news, updates, and articles about single board computer benchmarking, comparisons, and industry insights.

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