Cost: Budget-Friendly Hack Tool vs. Speculative Price Bump
The Flipper Zero’s MSRP is at $199, and I expect the Flipper One to be significantly more expensive. The One is set to be larger and house more powerful hardware than the Zero. A more advanced chipset, cellular networking capabilities, and proposed handheld Linux capabilities all point toward a higher price point. What that price will be is anyone's guess, but online speculators believe it could range from $299 to $599.
Form Factor: Pocket-Sized Utility vs. Backpack-Friendly Machine
The Flipper Zero is slim and easy to toss in your pocket or bag. I spent time with it and found it easy to carry around and hold in my hand. You may need deep pockets or a sling bag to take your Flipper One along for the ride. It’s significantly larger than the Zero at 6.1 inches long and 1.57 inches wide. You can see the exact measurements compared with the Flipper One in the image below:
The exact weight of the Flipper One hasn’t been published yet, but it’ll certainly be heftier than the Zero. The One features an anodized aluminum heat sink, bracket, and lanyard loop.
(Credit: PCMag/Flipper)Comparatively, the Zero’s all-plastic shell makes it lightweight. The One won’t be quite as unwieldy as a large handheld console, but it doesn’t look easy to use with one hand, especially if the added weight is significant. If you want to get a feel for the device ahead of its launch, Flipper has made a set of 3D files available for printing if you’ve got the right printer.
Hardware: Same Family Name, Very Different Silhouettes
Both Flippers may look similar, but they’re sporting completely different guts. The Flipper Zero contains internal modules built around interfacing with local devices. It can read and manipulate NFC, infrared, Sub-1GHz, and RFID signals. The GPIO port opens up a vast realm of add-ons and extras, which has situated the Zero as the go-to tinker tool for anyone interested in learning about control systems.
(Credit: PCMag/Flipper)The Zero is an educational toy with powerful capabilities, but it has hard limits. It can’t be easily flashed with different systems or do any advanced computing. While the Flipper One isn’t meant to replace the Zero, it is a logical next step to the portable power that the original offered.
The One is designed to be a portable Linux platform that “you can build almost anything on,” as Flipper stated in the One’s launch announcement. The One is going to pack a lot of power in a small package. It’s set to use a Rockchip RK3576 as the main CPU, an Arm Mali G52 MC3 as the integrated GPU, and a Raspberry Pi RP2350B MCU.
(Credit: PCMag/Flipper)Flipper has a full breakdown of the prospective hardware specs in its technical documentation. Current hardware and I/O highlights include an M.2 module, an antenna array for local and cellular communications, dual Ethernet ports for router and VPN applications, a returning GPIO port, a radio signal analyzer that works with local AI, PCI Express, USB-C, headphone jack, and built-in Wi-Fi. For an even more in-depth look at the internals, Flipper has published full schematics for every component in Altium.
(Credit: PCMag/Altium)While many features are confirmed, the Flipper One is still in development. That development cycle is fully open to the public. Anyone can contribute ideas to the project regarding hardware, software, or general features. Every aspect of the project is open source, including the ongoing development logs and conversations that companies normally keep behind closed doors. You can get involved or read more about the initiative in the Flipper One development portal.
Software: Curated Apps vs. Open Linux Playground
The Flipper Zero supports user-made applications. Anyone can make an app and upload it to the Flipper Lab, where users can download and try it out. The community has developed some pretty unique apps, but the platform is limited in that developers have to build around the Zero's functionality.
(Credit: PCMag/Flipper)Should development continue as planned, the Flipper One will be much more customizable thanks to its Linux-based operating system called FlipperOS. There are still plenty of hurdles to overcome before full Linux kernel support is achieved, and you can read about those challenges in the company’s roadmap.
One of the goals of Flipper OS is to have profiles that can be switched between to completely change how the One functions. For example, you could create a profile that makes the One act as a VPN tunnel. Instead of having to fully rewrite an SD card to change the device’s function, Flippers aims to allow users to simply switch between profiles.
(Credit: PCMag/Flipper)It’s an ambitious project, and the Flipper team acknowledges that the road ahead isn’t fully charted. Features may change. FlipperOS may behave differently when the device first boots. However, Flipper’s open development cycle lets you track the project's progress and see every update for yourself.
Verdict: The Flipper Zero Stays Relevant While the Flipper One Plays a Different Game
One thing is clear—the Flipper Zero isn’t going anywhere. The Flipper One isn’t a replacement or a refresh of the tried-and-true original. Right now, the Zero is the only one that you can buy, so you’ll need to sit tight while Flipper and the community at large figure out the One. I’ll keep this article updated as development continues, and you can expect a true hands-on comparison once the device starts rolling out, so be sure to check back.