Khadas VIM3 review

The Khadas VIM3 is a single-board computer from Shenzhen Wesion Technology, sold under the Khadas brand. The VIM3 Basic launched in 2019. It pairs an Amlogic A311D with up to 4GB of memory, onboard eMMC and an M.2 socket. That mix points at media boxes, display projects, light servers and embedded builds more than at general desktop use.

The Amlogic A311D has four Cortex-A73 cores at 2.2GHz and two Cortex-A53 cores at 1.8GHz. It also carries a 5 TOPS NPU. Memory is 2GB or 4GB of LPDDR4/LPDDR4X.

Six cores in a mixed layout give the board room for several services at once. The 4GB ceiling is the limit. With no higher RAM tier, it suits containers and single-purpose workloads better than several memory-hungry virtual machines. Owners describe the performance and efficiency as strong for its power use, which fits the high-clocked A73 cores on paper.

Storage is a strength. The board offers eMMC 5.1 in 16GB or 32GB, a micro-SD slot and an M.2 2280 socket for NVMe over PCIe 2.0 x1. You can boot and run from fast onboard storage, or keep the OS on eMMC and add an NVMe drive for data. The single PCIe 2.0 lane sets the ceiling for that drive, so it is a sensible fit for a modest SSD rather than a high-end one.

Wired networking is Gigabit Ethernet with Wake-on-LAN. Wireless is an AP6398S module with 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2x2 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0. A 40-pin GPIO header with 2.54mm pitch handles hardware projects.

The display side is broad. There is HDMI with CEC, a MIPI-DSI display interface and a touch-panel connector. That combination suits a small embedded screen as well as a TV. Power comes in through a 5–12V VIN connector or a USB-C port that accepts 5–20V USB Power Delivery.

The official OS list includes Mainline Linux, Ubuntu 20.04, LibreELEC, Google AOSP and Fuchsia OS. Armbian support has been announced. No end-of-support date has been announced for the VIM3. The mainline Linux option matters for anyone who wants a standard kernel rather than a vendor one.

Some owner reports show their age. They mention Wi-Fi not working under LibreELEC and no hardware video acceleration for Kodi at the time. These are 2019-era gaps, so check the current state of the image you plan to use before building a media centre around it.

Owners report temperatures reaching 75C and instability without a fan. They also consider the stock heatsink too small. If you plan sustained load, budget for better cooling.

Owners also report power delivery quirks. One report points to a power delivery bug that causes bootloops, noted on the Fuchsia hardware page. A builder reported shutdowns under motor current spikes. With a 5–12V VIN input and USB-C PD both available, choose and test your supply carefully, especially if you drive motors or other loads from the same rail.

The VIM3 suits builders who value the NVMe socket, the display connectors and the choice of operating systems. Based on the owner reports, it works best for people comfortable adding cooling and checking their power setup. It is a weaker fit for anyone who wants minimal fuss.