Notice that a heatsink and fan adds $10 to the cost and there is no eMMC included so you need to add storage to create a bootable system. Also the 2GB RAM version is not available/sold out and shipping is only calculated at checkout.

In other words, the final real cost will be substantailly more than $39.

I use a J4125 desktop for development and testing. The theory being that if there is a software problem, it is likely to be more noticeable on a lower powered computer.

FWIW... The past few weeks i researched SBCs before buying one to supplement my collection of Raspberry Pis. Radxa has some truly compelling devices, and were initially my first choice, BUT... the Pi family beats out every competitor by a factor of 100 or more when it comes to support, both from the vendors and the communities. So i bought a pi5.

OTOH, the Pi5 is no longer price- and energy-competitive with many Intel-based mini-PCs. For example, my pi5 (140€ with power supply and Flirc case) idles at around 4.2 watts, whereas my 180€ MiniForums gn34 PC (roughly 2 years old) idles at a mere 2 watts and performs better. Both peak at roughly 7 watts. The pi5 is so much cuter, though :).