Instead of the pi zero, check out the CHIP Pro (https://getchip.com/pages/chippro) ... a little more expensive, but available in quantity and designed to be pick & placed (or hand-soldered!), runs linux, and does most of the things a pi can do (sans video)

Stay away from CHIP, they appear to be bankrupt and/or fraudulent, they took my money and never delivered.

Fwiw I don't think it's even possible to order anything from them at the moment. I can't figure out how to (but also have heard other stories of late or non-delivery). Seems like a cool product until you realise it doesn't exist.

They withdrew sales of the original C.H.I.P. months and months ago, without really explaining why. It's quite puzzling, because I ordered four in November 2015 and got them as promised about six months later. I guess maybe they made an initial batch, fulfilled that, then just ran out of steam and haven't made any more? It's disappointing to hear other people haven't received theirs.

Huh, weird. I ordered some CHIP Pros and dev boards in February last year, and got them in ~2 weeks. I haven't ordered from them since, so maybe they went defunct or something. I dunno. That's too bad. :(

I ordered 5 CHIP in Feb 2017 and never got anything. Estimated shipping was Q1 2017.

I sent several mails and got no reply.

The email address <[email protected]> is now bouncing mails: "Recipient address rejected: User unknown".