Raspberry Pi vs. Beaglebone Black

Pi ModelCPURAMfeatures
ZeroARMv6512 MB LPDDR2low power consumption, single-core CPU.
4ARMv8 (A72)1..8 GB LPDDR4quad-core CPU, GPU, Bluetooth 5, 802.11ac, gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0
3+ARMv8 (A53)1 GB LPDDR2quad-core CPU, GPU, Bluetooth 4.2 / 802.11ac, gigabit Ethernet
2ARMv8 (A53)1 GB LPDDR2no onboard wireless.
1ARMv6512 MB LPDDR2high power consumption, single-core CPU.

The benchmarks for Raspberry Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3 show far faster performance than the Raspberry Pi 1 / Zero. Using the graphical desktop and 4 GB of RAM, the Raspberry Pi 4 is useful for modest desktop use. The new CPU-direct USB and Ethernet of the Raspberry Pi 4 brings drastically faster IO.

The Raspberry Pi Zero has an ARMv6 single core CPU but much lower idle power for battery-powered applications.

Beaglebone deterministic IO due to the PRU is a key advantage for certain applications. The Beaglebone DDR3L RAM, and ARMv7 CPU is nearly twice as powerful as the Raspberry Pi Zero, native Ethernet, onboard SSD (eMMC), better onboard I/O (for local sensors), etc. However, CPU or GPU demanding tasks should consider the latest Raspberry Pi or Intel NUC, etc. instead.