The Raspberry Pi 400 has been launched today, headlined by its creators as "the $70 desktop PC". On the Raspberry Pi blog Eben Upton wrote about the design being inspired by the classic home computers that launched and dominated the 1980s - bringing affordable programmable home computers to millions around the world. So yes, the keyboard is the computer, or it's an AiO sans screen, just like when you bought the Sinclair Spectrum, Atari ST, Commodore Amiga et al.
Thanks to the wonders of modern tech the Raspberry Pi 400 is such a thick wedge as its ancestors. From first looks it doesn't looks much different at all compared to the affordable wireless Bluetooth keyboards people buy to control HTPCs and so on. It doesn't have a built-in laptop-style touchpad cursor controller though. However that decision keeps it compact at just 283 x 120 x 20mm. A striking difference to any affordable Bluetooth keyboard is revealed when you look at this keyboard from the back - a wide range of connection ports.
Inside the Raspberry Pi 400 wedge is basically a 4GB Raspberry Pi 4. However, this Pi has been tweaked to be faster and run cooler than the SBC you can buy now. Check out the full specs below:
- Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 (ARM v8) 64-bit SoC @ 1.8GHz
- 4GB LPDDR4-3200
- Dual-band (2.4GHz and 5.0GHz) IEEE 802.11b/g/n/ac wireless LAN
- Bluetooth 5.0, BLE
- Gigabit Ethernet
- 2 × USB 3.0 and 1 × USB 2.0 ports
- Horizontal 40-pin GPIO header
- 2 × micro HDMI ports (supports up to 4Kp60)
- H.265 (4Kp60 decode); H.264 (1080p60 decode, 1080p30 encode); OpenGL ES 3.0 graphics
- MicroSD card slot for operating system and data storage
- 78- or 79-key compact keyboard (depending on regional variant)
- 5V DC via USB connector
- Operating temperature: 0°C to +50°C ambient
- Maximum dimensions 286 mm × 122 mm × 23 mm
Above you will see that the Raspberry Pi 400's CPU runs 300MHz faster than the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, before any OC shenanigans. The LPDDR4 RAM is also faster at 3,200MHz, rather than 2,400MHz. The Raspberry Pi 400 includes a "large internal heatsink," help make the faster clocks possible.
Explaining Computers' Christopher Barnatt has a 15 minute video showcasing the new Raspberry Pi 400 and it was particularly interesting to see the faster processor running much cooler than a standard Pi 4 over the duration of his 8-point stress test. He didn't open up the keyboard case to properly check why it ran so cool but Tom's Hardware did - and it found that the designers had included a full keyboard width metal backplate which had been embossed or deformed to make contact with the SoC.
The Raspberry Pi 400 costs $70 (£67) on its own, or you can get a bundle with the machine, official USB mouse, official PSU, an SD card with Raspberry Pi OS pre-installed, a micro HDMI to HDMI cable, and the official Raspberry Pi Beginner’s Guide for $100 (£94).
