Flipper Zero vs Flipper One – What’s The Difference?

The Flipper Zero is a popular hacking device used by hackers, pentesters, and geeks. It’s a simple device that lets you “hack” radio signals, remote controls, and more.

In this article, I will be comparing the Flipper Zero with the Flipper One, a similar device that is still in development. While both of these devices are made by the same company, there are some differences between the two.

If you’ve been wondering what the Flipper One is all about, read on! First, though, let me quickly introduce you to the Flipper Zero, as there is quite a bit of confusion about what it is, what it can actually do, and what it can’t do.

The short version of this article: The Flipper Zero is a basic hacking device that allows you to clone access control cards and old car key fobs and explore signals emitted by devices around you, but that’s about it. The Flipper One is a proposed update to the Flipper Zero that will be more advanced, but a release date has not been planned yet.

For more detailed explanations of each device and the differences between the two, read on!

Explore: DIY Flipper Zero Ideas

Flipper Zero vs Flipper One: What Are They?

What Is the Flipper Zero?

The Flipper Zero is a portable hacker device that you can fit into your pocket. It’s meant to be a multipurpose hacking tool, with many comparing it to the Swiss Army knife of hacking devices.

At less than $200, the device is affordable, and anyone can use it. It’s legal to purchase in the US (despite its capacity for being used for illegal activities), and although US Customs once seized a shipment of the devices, they later released it, as there’s nothing actually illegal about the device itself.

Also Read: Fake Spam Text Examples & How To Report?

Who Invented the Flipper Zero?

The Flipper Zero was invented by Pavel Zhovner and Alex Kulagin, who started the project on Kickstarter.

Their goal was to make a realistic hacking device that anyone could use. Until then, hackers would need to create DIY devices, which required quite a bit of know-how, which meant that doing simple hacks like hacking a TV remote in a public restaurant was off-limits to most people.

The device has more advanced capabilities as well, though, which you can manipulate with some cybersecurity knowledge.

The inventors also based the design on the Tamagotchi, which inspired the Flipper Zero in a large way.

It’s a keychain device – a digital pet – invented in 1996, with just three buttons. You get to raise a creature called a Tamagotchi, a small alien species that deposited an egg on this world.

When you activate the device, the egg will hatch, and your Tamagotchi will be born. You’ll be responsible for raising your little Tamagotchi through various stages of its life.

The screen of the Flipper Zero shows a friendly-looking dolphin, another idea based on the Tamagotchi. You can also play games with the current firmware version – the popular snake game, which you might be familiar with if you’ve ever had a flip phone, is included.

If you don’t know what the snake game is, don’t worry. You can play a retro version of the snake game here online.

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What Can the Flipper Zero Do?

There are a lot of misconceptions about the Flipper Zero, with many people believing it’s a magical device that can unlock doors, steal credit card information from any person walking nearby, manipulate gas station prices, unlock any car door, etc.

That’s far from the truth, as I will explain here. Despite that, the Flipper Zero is a powerful tool that you can use to explore the cyber world around you.

The Flipper Zero can read signals emitted by various devices, cards, and chips. A lot of things around us communicate via signals, including RFID devices such as hotel cards that you can use to unlock doors electronically, without a physical key, and remote car key openers that open the doors of your car when you are in proximity.

Using Flipper Zero, you can explore these signals emitted by RFID devices, access control systems, and more.

I will go into more detail about the various antennas and what they can pick up later.

Flipper Zero also has a transmitter that you can use to control TVs in place of a remote.

As the Flipper Zero can read signals emitted by these cards, you can clone them. For example, if you have an access card that allows you to enter your workplace or hotel room, you may be able to get your Flipper Zero to read that signal and clone it, after which you’ll be able to use your Flipper Zero instead of your card to open those doors.

That works with various types of access control systems, especially older ones that have low frequencies or iButtons. It can even clone car key fobs and open older cars that use outdated technology.

With the infrared transmitter, it can also clone TV remotes, allowing you to turn your TVs on and off with the device. That’s true for all TVs – theoretically, you can even use it to turn off TVs in public places, like restaurants or office waiting rooms.

What Can’t the Flipper Zero Do?

There are a lot of videos on TikTok and elsewhere on social media purporting to show the Flipper Zero doing crazy things, like changing prices at gas stations, unlocking gas station pumps without paying, opening Tesla car charge ports, and magically unlocking doors.

That’s mostly just hype, though. Most of those videos were staged and involved a lot of advanced planning – the Flipper Zero can’t do all that stuff.

Yes, it can do a lot of things, but it didn’t really invent new tech – it just made existing technology more accessible to people without hacking skills. If you can unlock an old car door or electronic lock with the Flipper Zero, the problem lies with the lock itself – it uses outdated, unsafe technology.

You would be able to unlock those doors with simpler devices and a laptop, if you had the know-how. You can even open some electronic locks with as little equipment as a magnet.

More modern access control systems have better security, especially if they are being used to protect higher-security things.

Also, the Flipper Zero has a lot of firmware and hardware limitations that prevent it from being used for certain illegal activities, so even if you know how to manipulate the software (it is open source), you wouldn’t be able to get the device to do certain things.

For example, while it can read a signal from a credit card chip, it can’t actually use that information to buy anything, because it can’t read or replay encrypted signals.

The Flipper Zero is mostly useful for reading encrypted signals, often transmitted by harmless devices such as pet microchips that transmit body temperature information or soap dispenser chips that tell maintenance teams when the soap dispenser needs to be refilled, according to a writer at Wired who tested the device.

Note that while the Flipper Zero can copy data from access control cards, chips, and key fobs, it can only do so when no encryption is involved and no authentication is required. These systems may be used in older buildings or offices that don’t prioritize security.

Newer cars and non-outdated access control systems will not be susceptible to such attacks, according to security expert Josep Albors. That’s because they use unique codes every time, and even old car fobs require certain conditions for you to be able to clone them at a distance.

Explore: DIY Flipper Zero Ideas

What Is the Flipper One?

The Flipper One is a proposed device that will succeed the Flipper Zero. It has not yet been released, and there is no official release date yet – it might be two or three years from now.

The idea is to improve on the original Flipper Zero and create an advanced device that can do a lot more. However, since the project is still in development, we don’t know for sure which features it will have.

Therefore, this article is based mostly on information released by Flipper Zero in the past.

Flipper Zero used to have a page dedicated to Flipper One, which I retrieved via Wayback Machine. However, the page currently shows a 404.

What does that mean? Most likely, the Flipper One is still in development, but the project might have simply been delayed, so there’s no knowing when it will come out; there is also a possibility that it won’t come out at all.

This article will focus on what you can most likely expect with the Flipper One. However, I want to stress that things can change.

With that said, let’s get into things.

Flipper One vs Flipper Zero: Operating System

Flipper Zero

The Flipper Zero is based on the FreeRTOS operating system. This is a real-time operating system kernel for microcontrollers that was developed back in 2003 and distributed under the MIT license.

The FreeRTOS operating system is mostly written in C, which makes it easy to maintain.

It’s possible to install third-party firmware on the Flipper Zero, but that takes some knowledge.

Flipper One

The Flipper One, on the other hand, was planned with Linux support. It was designed to be a small single-board ARM computer based on i.MX6 S0C from the official Kali Linux ARM (or supporting any other Linux system that works on i.MX6).

The system would be loaded from the micro SD card and include all the open source tools by default.

Flipper Zero vs Flipper One: Operability and Independent Usage

Flipper Zero

The Flipper Zero is designed to be used independently, without the need to connect to a third-party device. Most of the scripts and functions are available from the main menu.

Flipper One

Similarly, the Flipper One is designed to be used independently, with the ability to control it with a five-position directional pad, just like the Flipper Zero.

However, you would be able to connect it to the web interface via Bluetooth or connect to SSH via USB.

Flipper One vs Flipper Zero: External Hardware

Flipper Zero

Most of the external hardware on Flipper Zero and Flipper One will most likely be the same. The Flipper Zero has an old-school LCD screen, which has advantages such as being easily visible in bright sunlight and low battery consumption.

Similarly, you can expect the Flipper One to have that screen.

Flipper One

Some things might be different on the Flipper One, though. For example, it might have a micro USB port instead of a Type C USB port for firmware updates and battery charging.

This micro USB port would also provide Linux shell access via UART.

It seems like there were initial plans to add Raspberry Pi ports on the side of the device, including HDMI and host/OTG ports, but these plans were later scrapped, and these ports will be removed.

Flipper Zero vs Flipper One: Antennas and Card Cloning

Flipper Zero

Flipper Zero has quite a few antennas built in, with the capacity to read frequency signals from a wide range of cards and transmitters.

Here is a brief overview of the types of signals that the Flipper Zero can read.

Sub-1 GHz Range

The Flipper Zero’s 433MHz antenna and CC1101 chip allow it to read signals in the sub-1 GHz range, which is often used by remote keyless systems, garage door remotes, smart sockets and bulbs, and IoT sensors.

It could allow you, for example, to clone your garage door opener and use your Flipper to open your garage instead. Technically, you could even clone someone else’s garage door opener.

Low-Frequency RFID Proximity Cards

A lot of access control systems use low-frequency RFID cards that are read upon proximity to the card reader, without any authentication used. These access control systems use outdated technology but are still popular across the world.

The cards store a single byte that can be read by the card reader when held up to it. Using the Flipper Zero’s 125 kHz antenna, you can read such cards and store the bytes stored in them, later using the Flipper to open those doors.

High-Frequency NFC Proximity Cards

The Flipper Zero can also read high-frequency cards with the built-in 13.56 MHz NFC module. That allows you to read and emulate NFC (Near Field Communication) cards.

In general, NFC can store more data than just a single bit of information like RFID cards, and NFC is also capable of two-way communication while RFID is only capable of one-way communication.

Examples of cards that may use this technology include newer metro cards, credit and debit cards, and even Apple Pay. Again, remember that the device simply can not read encrypted information, so you can’t just copy credit cards from passing individuals.

1-Wire iButton Keys

The 1-Wire technology, also known as iButton or Touch Memory, is another older access control technology that does not require authentication.

The Flipper Zero can read iButton keys and emulate them, just like it can low and high-frequency access control cards.

Flipper One

It is not yet clear which antennas the Flipper One will have.

Flipper Zero once had a Google Form in which it asked current users which features they would like the Flipper One to have, including:

• iButton key
• 125 kHz RFID reader for older low frequency cards
• Sub-1 GHz reader for garage door openers, car key fobs, etc.
• NFC Reader

I retrieved this Google Form from Wayback Machine. As you can see, the company wasn’t sure if people still wanted features that are already on the Flipper Zero.

However, the developers were thinking of installing a high-frequency card reader supported by the LibNFC library. The original goal was to have a full-fledged emulator like the Chameleon Mini, but they ran into a problem – the best chip they had was the NXP PN532, but it couldn’t fully emulate cards.

Flipper One vs Flipper Zero: Pricing

Flipper Zero

Right now, the Flipper Zero costs $169, although you can purchase add-ons such as a screen protector and case for an additional cost.

However, check the Flipper Zero shop for updated pricing information. Note that there are limits on purchases – you can only purchase two Flippers in a single order.

Flipper One

It is unknown how much the Flipper One will cost when it is released. Most likely, it will remain affordable, just like the Flipper Zero.

However, if it turns out to have advanced features, even being a full-blown SDR, you can expect it to be more expensive, $200-300 might be a good estimation, but again, there is no way of knowing for sure.

Will the Flipper One Replace the Flipper Zero?

It is yet unknown if the Flipper One will replace the Flipper Zero entirely or just be an additional, more advanced version.

Perhaps one of the reasons the developers were asking people if they should include features already included on the Flipper One was that they expected many people to own both devices.

Either way, we’ll have to wait until the release of Flipper Zero or until the developers actually release new updates about it, which haven’t come for a while. The project may very well be shelved for the time being – perhaps they did not see enough demand for it yet.

Conclusion

The Flipper One is supposed to be an advanced version of the Flipper Zero, with additional capabilities and advanced hacking tools. If you liked the Flipper Zero, you might be anxiously awaiting the release of the Flipper One.

We don’t yet have a release date but check back for updates. Also, remember that the Flipper Zero is only an introduction into the digital hacking world, and if you really want to be a hacker or pentester, you will need more advanced tools and skills.