Raspberry Pi has been selling tiny, inexpensive computers and accessories since 2012. But while Raspberry Pi hardware has become popular with enthusiasts and home users, the organization’s single-board computers were originally targeted at students, educators, and makers.
The new Raspberry Pi 400 is something
different: a full-fledged computer stuffed inside a keyboard. It’s basically a
modern take on the Commodore 64 and similar personal computers from decades
past. A key difference? The Raspberry Pi 400 is incredibly affordable, with
prices starting at just US$ 70.
That’s how much you pay to get a Raspberry
Pi 400 PC-in-a-keyboard case. Or you can pay US$ 100 for a Raspberry Pi 400
Personal Computer Kit that bundles the PC with:
- Official USB mouse
- Official USB-C power supply
- 16GB microSD card with Raspberry Pi OS pre-installed (although Ubuntu and other operating systems should be supported as well)
- micro HDMI to HDMI cable
The only thing that’s not included is a
display, but you should be able to hook up just about any HDMI monitor or TV.
Under the hood, the Raspberry Pi 400 has the same basic hardware as a Raspberry
Pi 4 Model B with 4GB of RAM. The memory, storage, wireless capabilities, and
ports are the same – but the board has been redesigned so that all the ports
are on one side so that they can all be accessed from the back of the
keyboard/computer.
Raspberry Pi also equipped this model with
a slightly faster processor clocked at 1.8 GHz rather than 1.5 GHz. That means
Raspberry Pi HATs and other accessories probably won’t fit. But it would have
been tough to cram them inside the Raspberry Pi 400’s custom case anyway.
Here’s a run-down of the new computer’s
key specs:
- Processor: Broadcom BCM2711 processor (4 x ARM Cortex-A72 CPU cores @ 1.8GHz
- Memory: 4GB LPDDR4-3200
- Wireless: Dual-band WiFi 5, Bluetooth 5.0
- Ports: Gigabit Ethernet, 2 × USB 3.0 and 1 × USB 2.0, 2 × micro HDMI ports (up to 4Kp60)
- GPIO: Horizontal 40-pin GPIO header
- Storage: MicroSD card slot for OS and data storage
- Power: 5V DC via USB connector
- Keyboard: 78- or 79-key compact keyboard (UK and US English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish layouts available at launch)
- Dimensions: 286 mm × 122 mm × 23 mm
