Raspberry Pi Announces New $90 Computer in a Keyboard, Plus 'Raspberry Pi Monitor' (techcrunch.com) 38
"Single-board computer maker Raspberry Pi is updating its cute little computer-meet-keyboard device with better specifications..." reports TechCrunch.
They call the new $90 Raspberry Pi 500 "not as intimidating" because "when you look at the Raspberry Pi 500, you can't see any chipsets or printed circuit board... The idea with the Raspberry Pi 500 is that you can plug in a mouse and display, and you're ready to hit the ground running." When it comes to specifications, the Raspberry Pi 500 features a 64-bit quad-core Arm processor (the same one as the Raspberry Pi 5 uses); 8GB of RAM; 2 micro-HDMI ports, with support for up to two 4K displays; 3 traditional USB ports (but no USB-C besides the power port unfortunately); a Gigabit Ethernet port; and a 40-pin expansion header. It comes with native Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support.
More importantly, this device brings us back Raspberry Pi's roots. Raspberry Pi computers were originally intended for educational use cases... The Raspberry Pi 500 draws inspiration from the not-for-profit Raspberry Pi Foundation's roots. It's the perfect first computer for school. In many ways, it's much better than a Chromebook or an iPad because it is both cheap and highly customizable — encouraging creative thinking. The Raspberry Pi 500 comes with a 32GB SD card preloaded with Raspberry Pi OS, a Debian-based Linux distribution...
In other news, Raspberry Pi has announced another brand-new product: the Raspberry Pi Monitor. It's a 15.6-inch 1080p monitor with a price-tag of $100.
Tom's Hardware calls the Pi 500 "a superb update" to the original computer-in-a-keyboard Raspberry Pi 400: Having the ports at the back makes total sense. It tidies up the cables, and means that we only need one thick edge, the rest can be as thin as possible... [P]assive cooling performance is remarkable, even when overclocked to 3 GHz...! I did have to adjust the voltage to keep everything stable, but once I found the magic numbers, the system was stable and performed remarkably well... [I]t ran buttery smooth and surprisingly, cool under stress. I'd consider this a successful overclock and one that I would happily keep as a permanent addition...
Just like the Raspberry Pi 400, the Pi 500 is there to be a 21st century equivalent to the home computers of the 1980s. You plug in to a wedge-shaped keyboard, hook up to your display, and start work. But the Raspberry Pi 500 has much more processing power than the Pi 400, and that means it can be a viable desktop computer for those that don't need an RTX 4090 or a power-hungry CPU.
I like the Raspberry Pi 500. It's a powerful machine, in a pleasant package. I'm old enough to remember the 1980s home computer craze, and this, just like the Pi 400, reminds me of that time. But now we have much more power... The Raspberry Pi 500 is the kit that you buy as a gift for someone, or as a child's first computer. I can see this being used in schools and to an extent in offices around the world.
They call the new $90 Raspberry Pi 500 "not as intimidating" because "when you look at the Raspberry Pi 500, you can't see any chipsets or printed circuit board... The idea with the Raspberry Pi 500 is that you can plug in a mouse and display, and you're ready to hit the ground running." When it comes to specifications, the Raspberry Pi 500 features a 64-bit quad-core Arm processor (the same one as the Raspberry Pi 5 uses); 8GB of RAM; 2 micro-HDMI ports, with support for up to two 4K displays; 3 traditional USB ports (but no USB-C besides the power port unfortunately); a Gigabit Ethernet port; and a 40-pin expansion header. It comes with native Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support.
More importantly, this device brings us back Raspberry Pi's roots. Raspberry Pi computers were originally intended for educational use cases... The Raspberry Pi 500 draws inspiration from the not-for-profit Raspberry Pi Foundation's roots. It's the perfect first computer for school. In many ways, it's much better than a Chromebook or an iPad because it is both cheap and highly customizable — encouraging creative thinking. The Raspberry Pi 500 comes with a 32GB SD card preloaded with Raspberry Pi OS, a Debian-based Linux distribution...
In other news, Raspberry Pi has announced another brand-new product: the Raspberry Pi Monitor. It's a 15.6-inch 1080p monitor with a price-tag of $100.
Tom's Hardware calls the Pi 500 "a superb update" to the original computer-in-a-keyboard Raspberry Pi 400: Having the ports at the back makes total sense. It tidies up the cables, and means that we only need one thick edge, the rest can be as thin as possible... [P]assive cooling performance is remarkable, even when overclocked to 3 GHz...! I did have to adjust the voltage to keep everything stable, but once I found the magic numbers, the system was stable and performed remarkably well... [I]t ran buttery smooth and surprisingly, cool under stress. I'd consider this a successful overclock and one that I would happily keep as a permanent addition...
Just like the Raspberry Pi 400, the Pi 500 is there to be a 21st century equivalent to the home computers of the 1980s. You plug in to a wedge-shaped keyboard, hook up to your display, and start work. But the Raspberry Pi 500 has much more processing power than the Pi 400, and that means it can be a viable desktop computer for those that don't need an RTX 4090 or a power-hungry CPU.
I like the Raspberry Pi 500. It's a powerful machine, in a pleasant package. I'm old enough to remember the 1980s home computer craze, and this, just like the Pi 400, reminds me of that time. But now we have much more power... The Raspberry Pi 500 is the kit that you buy as a gift for someone, or as a child's first computer. I can see this being used in schools and to an extent in offices around the world.
Re: (Score:2)
Same feeling here. They should try again with a halfway decent keyboard with hotswap keyswitches as the basis. I got a Reddragon Devarajas for like $53, it has an aluminum case and pretty decent switches (supposedly rebranded outemu*) and when an LED failed they just sent me another one, so there must be plenty of profit built into that price.
* If anyone cares about this keyboard more than the rest of the comment: supposedly, using other than outemu switches can cause problems because the sockets are outemu
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I might be curious if it had a numeric keypad but clearly nor do they do arithmetic.
Re: (Score:2)
The ones I know use voice chat on Discord to communicate with their friends. The typing part of the chat is just for pasting memes.
Re: (Score:2)
If it's anything like the Pi 400, then it's not the worst keyboard I've used. I've had some cheap laptops that flexed terribly under their chiclet keyboard. I can at least type fast and it is a fairly light touch and at a slight tilt.
That said, I think I'd rather have a similarly priced Chromebook, but with a rpi-compatible IDC box header on it. But that's not likely to happen, despite seeming like a very STEM-friendly idea to me.
I went with a CM4 module in a DeskPi case and brought my own mechanical keyboa
Good news, plug in your own keyboard (Score:2)
A chicklet keyboard.
Good news, you can plug in your own keyboard if you care.
Of you can buy their smaller regular case so you don't have to see any chipsets or printed circuit board, and plug in your own.
I have a friend with the previous RPi 4 version of this configuration. It's convenient when he has to take it on the road. At home he'll just ssh to it.
Unpopulated part (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Brilliant (Score:5, Insightful)
This product really appeals to me.
You could put together a minimalist set up (Pi 500 + monitor using wireless mouse) and have a clean desk at a very reasonable price.
For people who use their computer for email and browsing it looks like a great option.
Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)
no one cares what you think
I can't stress this enough. Someone cares and you know who it is? You. You spent the time to read, login and even click COWARD.
Quit lying. You care deeply.
we care a lot! (Score:2)
And it looks like a few people with mod points care, too.
Re: Brilliant (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, I could see that. Though you could take a small computer, attach it to the back of your monitor, and then use a wireless keyboard and mouse, and you have an even cleaner desktop. Plus, you can get a keyboard that you like (which is going to be very different for different people).
With the popularity of small computers, there really should be a mounting standard for monitors that doesn't conflict with the monitor stand. Ideally there should also be an option for the computer to be powered through the
Re: (Score:2)
what? No, there is no clean desk with this setup
you need to power it, the monitor, and the HDMI cable for the monitor. that's 3 cables coming out of this keyboard thing
I know this, I had the model 400 a few years ago and it ...just sucked. Not hardware wise, but the fact that you need at minimum 2 wires.
For a clean desk, just go with wireless keyboard and mouse and a normal computer.
Re:Brilliant Historic Examples (Score:2)
Laptops are cheaper (Score:2)
You can buy a brand new Chromebook laptop for under $50. Reference: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ace... [walmart.com]
It will probably perform better too.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. Or get that and a real microcontroller board in addition, like an Orange Pi.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
I don't think so, with an 8 year old Celeron?
I would expect the benchmarks to favour the Cortex-A76, twice as many cores and double the RAM.
Re: (Score:2)
Last I checked a decent email/browsing Chromebook was going to cost $235'ish.
Re: (Score:2)
You can buy a brand new Chromebook laptop for under $50. Reference: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ace... [walmart.com]
It will probably perform better too.
Your link refers to refurbished laptop:
About this item
Product details
This item is in good condition, showing signs of use from normal wear. It is backed by a 1 year warranty. It is fully functional and has been professionally refurbished, inspected and cleaned to good condition.
Can't actually 'Buy' any Chromebook (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Linux on chromebooks is a shit show. Half the hardware works and you have to open up some models to enable reflashing, otherwise you'll be dual booting the already slow and limited eMMC drive.
Re: (Score:2)
For $50 you can get a half-ounce of flower.
Get that instead, because you can have a lot of fun with the computer you probably already have.
Get a real computer (Score:3)
The original mission of the RP is dead and never panned out. If you want a single board computer, get an Orange Pi or something like it that was designed by actual experts and not by the hacks at the RP foundation that are laughably inept.
Re: (Score:2)
The original mission of the RP is dead and never panned out.
Wrong, you can get a $35 Raspberry Pi 4. That $35 Linux SBC is alive and well, letting students learn software and hardware.
Sadly no M.2 connector. (Score:4, Insightful)
The latest RPi 5 is really great running off an M.2 or external USB-C SSD attached... every bit as good as a mainstream laptop/desktop for basic tasks. Running off a microSD is much less pleasant. You could still use an external USB drive with the Pi 500, but it would have cost so little to include an M.2 slot on this and would have made it so much nicer. Really poor decision-making from RPi.
Re: (Score:2)
it has an unpopulated M2 connector and power supply; someone has already got it working. I assume they'll populate it in a minor spin.
Re: (Score:2)
It's not that easy to get working because it's missing more than just the connector. Jeff Geerling has a video [youtube.com] about this. So I don't think this is something the average person could do, and Geerling seems to indicate that there are no plans to populate the M2 connector and power supply.
Re: (Score:2)
That's exactly what I'm referring to, yes. Mind you I'm an EE so for someone like myself it is trivial to populate the connector, four 0402 or 0201 caps and rig up something to supply power. I find myself occasionally thinking "oh that's easy" without considering why it's easy for someone like myself.
Re: (Score:2)
I liked the red accent of the Pi 400 (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's a nice base coat for painting camo patterns on your keyboard like in Hackers.