i have it booting and try to get the maxlinear switch and the aeonsemi phys working 
Software needs some work. i also found some hw issues which should be fixed in later versions (maybe it is already better in actual revision)…
i have a v00 board, not defined for sale, it is normal that not all is working in this state, so don’t worry
Personally, I think the R4 pro is a direct match for the be19. Do you have any plans to test the be19 once prototypes start rolling out?
In the last few days, I read a good assessment about Wi-Fi 7:
“Direct match” … 
→ The R4 has the same CPU …
My favorite (right now) for the Pro version is the AW7915 or AW7916 
→ So far, I haven’t seen any cooling solution (combined with shielding) for the BE19.
And … the cases are – euphemistically speaking –
→ still leaving room for improvement.
As you can see, I’m quite pessimistic when it comes to the R4 cases.
→ They definitely know the board’s maximum power consumption. And the R3 mini also ended up getting a second case.
After the BE14, I now look at all of this from a “popcorn perspective”:
→ In the end, it might even turn out that I’ll buy the OpenWrt Two. But I’ll wait another year for that decision — read along and enjoy some popcorn 
The biggest problem with the BPI-R4 Pro is that MediaTek lacks proper open-source support and simply doesn’t care. No matter how impressive the manufacturer’s marketing slides and specs may look on paper, they don’t mean much in practice. Power management is poor, the firmware is riddled with bugs, and the MediaTek MT7988 is roughly on par with the Raspberry Pi 4’s BCM2711. By today’s standards, that’s hardly impressive. Buying this product is basically paying the “stupidity tax.” Moreover, due to recent changes in domestic policies in China, most factories are now required to make mandatory social insurance contributions for their workers. As a result, many electronics manufacturers will likely either raise prices or shut down altogether.
Openwrt two looks interesting, but I liked the capabilities and “crazy in a good way” of R4\Pro, especially Pro. I would really like to have 10Gb wan and lan (RJ45 and SFP+), nvme, at least 1 sim slot. Well, that is, I want R4 Pro, with many antennas, but not from banana pi and with normal support
feel free to go to qualcomm & realtek etc …good luck
As I am here last year, I also have feeling that the manufacturer could support open-source community better. It is quite nice and I like the topics about ideas for new versions, but I think, that the time to better/full use-ability of their products should be much shorter.
Do you have experiences with any other hw manufacturers approach?
How long it takes than bpi-r4 became old?
Even selling period could be prolonged?
Hello, is there a release date for this board ?? thanks
Please, was there ever a release date for one of this boards?
Why do you want to buy board at this state? I currently working on basic linux support for it and also openwrt does not support this yet. You have to wait some time to let software mature a bit.
Hi, I’m interested in this board too!
I feel like a sum of people would be willing to buy it now if the hardware is finalized.
Board manufacturers tend to focus on downstream/bsp linux so waiting for software to be mature is expected.
Is there a chance some early units would be available before 2026?
And what will the price be like?
I’m assuming something around the 200-250$ mark?
Will this board be mainlined/upstreamed eventually?
Do you plan to release DXF drawings of the BPI-R4 Pro and BE19 boards? Those would make it easier to design a 3D-printed enclosure.
Is it possible to make the SFP 10GbE port support MTU 9000? Thanks.
If anyone has a tested patch for it…i tried to port sdk patch but there are some conflicts i could not solve.
Hi, I’m interested in this board too!
→ Me too
I feel like a sum of people would be willing to buy it now if the hardware is finalized.
→ What for? Coming back and saying it is not working?
→ Please do not buy this board within the next 6 - 12 months
Board manufacturers tend to focus on downstream/bsp linux so waiting for software to be mature is expected.
→ 
BPI will … ?
Is there a chance some early units would be available before 2026?
→ 
And what will the price be like? → The release of BPI boards is as follows:
→ They say it will be mass-produced
→ Someday it is sold on AliExpress
→ Usually (never read it!) no one in this forum gets an answer on this (when, how much)
I’m assuming something around the 200-250$ mark?
→ YOU should wait!
Will this board be mainlined/upstreamed eventually?
→ Good chances!
When will stable Wi-Fi 7 software be available?
→ ? 2027 ?
Is this a development board?
→ Yes
Do I have to do the shielding and cooling by myself?
→ Most likely
Not official information, heard from a friend, the R4-pro board will release in October.
What for? Coming back and saying it is not working?
That sum of people is people who know a thing or two about hardware bringup.
I unfortunately always expect horrible mainline support from all board manufacturers so whenever i buy a board basically “nothing works”.
Please do not buy this board within the next 6 - 12 months
Any specific reason? Will there be revisions? I’m personally new to BPI so i don’t know how much they test their hardware but it would be a very awful experience if a board has a major hardware level flaw that cannot be fixed/improved either via software workarounds or minor hardware fixes.
But yes i agree, Maybe i should wait.
BPI will …
Do the same as all board manufacturers? Provide a known good vendor kernel/distro that was tested internally for all board features?
I appreciate your answers, Unfortunately after waiting for a while since seeing this board announced i became a little desperate to ask 
Guess i’ll wait!
Thank you.
It will take some time for software support and hardware testing…we still need to get it basicly working first and upstreaming code to get mainline linux support.
We still hanging on R4 pro with pcs before we can upstream the 10G sfp part. But for R4 there is now basic network support (internal switch) in 6.18.
For R4 pro i should get my updated board this week and i hope bugs from earlier revision are fixed.
Woo, Exciting!
I’m just hoping that once the board is released to the public it won’t have any major hardware flaws.
Also glad to hear that you guys are interested in upstreaming/mainline.
If all goes reasonably well, this board will break sales records. Once it has OpenWrt support, I’ll definitely buy one.