Khadas VIM 4: Powerful ARM SBC with HDMI Input

VIM 4 SBC review, including demos running Ubuntu 22.04, Android 11 and the board’s OOWOW embedded firmware.

Please note that as an Amazon Associate I earn a commission from any qualifying purchases you may make via the above link.

My recent review of Ubuntu 22.04 is here:

And my previous review of the Khadas VIM 3 is here:

If you want to edit video on an ARM SBC, I also have a guide here:

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:44 Unboxing
03:20 Specification
07:05 Case & OOWOW
10:55 Ubuntu Demo
15:14 Android Install
17:40 HDMI Input

#VIM4 #SBC #ExplainingComputers

[JeffGeerling]

19:21 - I long for the day when one of these boards finally has the software to bring out the best in the hardware (especially in Linux, where we could actually do things with it, instead of Android).

[john-r-edge]

When it comes to videos introducing SBCs etc Mr Barnatt sets the standard. Other channels are not bad, but i often find myself wishing for the clarity of the video work and commentary which is provided so effortlessly by Explaining Computers.
Keep up the good work!

[Ollital]

"We turn the board over. The excitement continues."
Made my day!

[wasitacatisaw]

Well, in the words of the firmware, "OoWow". This looks like a game-changer in the world of SBCs. Willing to bet this is the watershed moment where all SBCs will start including some sort of BIOS/Firmware from now on. Can't wait to get my hands on one of these.

[VenomStryker]

I would love to attend one of this guys anything. Very informative and entertaining.

[-someone-.]

Now I know what your intro song reminds me of! It’s a mix between inspector gadget & dr.who 🤣👊 I love it.

[freejulianassange]

I wouldn't be surprised if they're not allowed to distribute the playstore portion. I know some Chinese phones come with their own app managers and don't have playstore even though they run android. On one of those that I have you could install playstore from an apk though and it seems to work fine. Thank you Chris for the fine segment as usual. Consistently both a top and accessible channel for this type of content.

[John.z]

Thank you Chris, that was most interesting. That is quite a capable computer.
Concerning all the product features without support that you mention, have you considered doing a few follow-up reviews of such products? As a person of constrained finances, I am cautious about buying products that have relatively poor support for hardware elements that form the basis of the company's marketing. I first ran into this with my Odroid C2. That SBC is now running a later and Odroid oriented version of LibreELEC (CoreELEC) very well. But when I received it, that machine/environment was not a particularly stable solution, and Debian was not functional at all. There are other manufacturers that do not seem to keep up the process of supporting their hardware, and you are one of the few people who are in a position to tell us buyers about the progress, or otherwise.

[BryanBenoit]

The Khadas VIM 4 seems to be a very impressive board. Thanks for reviewing it.

[thenextpoetician]

On a side note, it is of course obvious, however when someone with disastrous narrative style such as this typist can at least recognize superb narrative style, it speaks more to the speaker than the listener. Thanks for another informative video.

[seguramlk]

Awesome. I hope these SBCs keep coming. Great job, Chris 👍

[mrush]

The most entertaining review channel ever! I love it.

[insanemainstream]

I love these SBC videos along with the RISC-V. Keep up the great work!

[ArniesTech]

Sunday is always the day to a closer.. look 💪🙏

[josephregallis]

When I first saw this board, I was surprised to see how smal it is! Once you get some software on this, it will probably be pretty amazing!

[HKey_Root]

Let joy be unconfined! It's been a while since I've got enthusiastic about buying a new SBC. Love the HDMI capture possibilties. Thank you.

[perrymcclusky]

It is so amazing how much technology can be put into such a small board. Looking forward to your next video!

[wamy]

That is an interesting point you made, maybe you should do something like a six month, year, and two year retrospect of these single processors. Since these are less mainstream they may not get the attention they deserve. You could also include comparison to earlier iterations.

[NewAgeDIY]

Now this new SBC has me very interested. Would live to see more on what it can do. I’m hoping you will have a follow up video in the work Chris.

What a nice way to your Sunday morning, a new SBC review from EC. Thanks as always.

[PeterJasper]

Thanks for another great review of the latest VIM 4 SBC. After the hardware has been developed I am sure there is a scramble to provide software support for such things as HDMI input on Ubuntu and the Play store on Android... As SBCs become more powerful they will have wider applications for edge computing, which will be great to see.