Lots of people say there are superior devices - however the community size and support for Raspberry Pi cannot be overstated.
The price of an Odroid XU4 is significantly proportionally higher and I have no guarantee that certain features or projects are feasible on it. First result from Dec 2017 when searching for "XU4 Kodi" is someone having a problem installing and then saying "I would prefer a version with long term support and wide use base." Well my answer to that is RPi.
I'm merely implying that RPi has a higher chance of certain things working simply because its more popular. I'm not disputing that there are higher performance platforms for "similar" money but it's reliability and a little more certainty that some people are after.
I would love to try one of the ODROID devices, I simply don't have the time. And I love seeing suggestions for these other devices so please don't stop posting them :)
Mostly because of the community around the Pi. Interestingly, though, the ODROID C2 may be a much better option. I just don't know if I'll end up picking up more than one of them just yet.
To be more clear, the list of of advantages mentioned above make ODROID-C4 a better choice for any server-like application, while Raspberry Pi 4 is probably better for a personal-computer-like application.
I do not use a credit-card-sized computer as a PC instead of my laptop, but I use such computers in server-like applications, so for my uses, ODROID-C4 is better.
After you add all the required accessories, the prices fror RPI 4 and for ODROID-C4 are very similar, for both of them you would reach around $100 for a decent system, but the ODROID shop is somewhat more convenient because you can buy from a single place almost any accessory you might need besides the basic board.
I have an ODROID U2 and love it, but it was much more expensive than my Pis and is a pain in terms of OS support (I'm still running the original kernel since Hardkernel has pretty much dropped support for it, and have hacked my way up to Ubuntu 18.04 on top of it). The Pi's popularity helps a lot in terms of support.
Orange Pi and ODROID-C2, and there are a few slightly more expensive but vastly faster and higher specced options (like the Tinker Board). But the onboarding experience and ongoing support is usually far worse than with the Pi.
Odroid units are not really plug & play. Software matters and the raspberry pi ecosystem is just better. I want to say the N2 is hands-down better than the pi, but if you deviate even a little (eg, try to add a third-party touchscreen that works perfectly fine on the pi), you'll quickly find things not working and no support from anyone.
I've had Odroid devices in the past. Although they by all means work as advertised, the SW support for the raspberry pi is higher, allowing more recent kernels and with more (most) of the sources available also more tinkering.
I'd recommend to settle for the lower performance unless you really really need it.
The Pi 3 is strictly inferior to the ODROID-C2 and Pine64 in the areas he cares about - less RAM, slower I/O, proprietary bootloader that can't even boot 64-bit kernels, etc. Plus it still doesn't use a standard PC form factor. It's not even cheaper either.
I think Odroid c4 will have a gpu advantage an area where traditionally Raspberry Pi has been weak. It takes time and tweaking to get ok graphics out of the pi. So Odroid may make for a better HTPC setup.
Which of Raspberry Pi 4 or ODROID-C4 is preferable, depends on the application. Neither of them is better for all applications.
If the power consumption matters, then ODROID-C4 is better.
If the performance of the non-volatile memory is a limitation, then ODROID-C4 is much faster.
If the speed of DRAM is a limitation, then ODROID-C4 is faster.
If the application requires sustained performance with all cores active, then ODROID-C4 is faster, unless a custom cooler is used with RPI 4, which must be either very noisy or very large (larger than the board).
I have been using Odroid XU4 for home server (home assistant), personal CCTV, controls IR blaster and other sensors for years, still running perfect without rebooting for months. I also have Pi 3 for Pi Hole, but honestly my Odroid XU4 is more stable than Pi 3.
I'm currently working on a project that involves using the Pi for 24x7 1080p video streaming and doing so without hardware acceleration results in lag.
The experience with ODROID C2 on the other hand is superior.
https://www.odroid.co.uk/ is the first result from duckduckgo. That should answer your 2nd question too. I bought an odroid some years ago (C1 maybe?) and I found quite a lot of things didn't work. I ended up paying quite a lot after the customs people had their way so I'd always go with a local distributor now. I could have returned it if I'd done that too.
That xu4 link states it runs 16.04 but maybe that's also out of date info. The cpu performance sounds good but I think we'll have to disregard the pi3 comparison they provide as per the throttling the OP describes. Usb and network performance improvements would certainly be worth it for a NAS system, but then you don't get any sata ports.
Gpio wise you've got a non-standard 2mm pitch header and 1.8V. What a pain.
For me, the lack audio output and WiFi is a bit annoying. A media centre with a only hdmi1.4 would be a problem for some (you'd also maybe have to go for the slower one without a fan).
Also remembering we are comparing a £42 device (I've included the official pi PSU) with a £70 device (+ if we want wifi). So maybe it's better compared against an atom board for those who want to spend a bit more. But an atom gives you sata so if that price comparison is fair (edit: had a quick look, it's not fair), the xu4 isn't that great.
Maybe it is the use as a desktop system where the xu4 shines.
I've owned a XU4 for over a year now. It's been a great piece of kit (once I disabled the fan that is). For me the biggest advantage over the Pi is the extra memory. Especially if you plan to develop any sort of Java services.
I have an ODROID X2 and it was beyond faff - needed its own special PSU (not MicroUSB), wouldn't boot with any USB drives plugged in (power issues), would occasionally just not boot at all, corrupted the SD card a few times, etc.
Was a lovely powerful platform -when it worked-. The Pis are woeful when you compare them for raw power but they're orders of magnitude less dicking about and that's important.
It can be a good or bad experience, depending on what exactly you want to do. specs-wise, there are many options that beat the Pi. But getting certain things done will be harder (or impossible) on non-Pis, unless you're an experienced kernel hacker (and even then)...
See my review of the ODROID-C2 / compared to Pi 3 for more thoughts[1]
There are plenty of boards that are much more powerful than the RPi and have comparable price (ODROID-C2 comes to mind). But the devil is in wether or not they run the mainline Linux kernel.
I have several ODROID-C2 that I have replaced with RPis because of the poor hardware support (Amlogic kernel was way late at the time, may still is).
However, the ODROID C2 is priced similarly to the Pi and has more support than the XU4. LibreELEC has out of the box support for the C2.
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