The successor to the extremely in style Raspberry Pi 400, a throwback design that packs the ability of a Raspberry Pi 4 right into a keyboard chassis impressed by residence computer systems of the Eighties and Nineties, is right here, and it has introduced a pal: meet the Raspberry Pi 500 and the Raspberry Pi Monitor.
The Raspberry Pi 500, regardless of its diminutive stature, options the identical system-on-chip because the Raspberry Pi 5 single-board pc — however this time in a type issue that makes it straightforward to deploy in school rooms, bedrooms, residing rooms, and wherever else you’ll be able to match a keyboard, mouse, and monitor.
On the latter entrance Raspberry Pi has additionally launched its first consumer-grade show, the 15.6″ Raspberry Pi Monitor — splendid to be used with the Raspberry Pi 500 and different fashions within the vary, able to being powered totally over USB and with a Full HD show and built-in stereo audio system.
Is Raspberry Pi onto one other winner? Let’s dive in and discover out.
The {hardware}
A pc in a keyboard, identical to again within the good outdated days: the Raspberry Pi 500. (📷: Gareth Halfacree)
Raspberry Pi 500
- CPU: Broadcom BCM2712 4-core up-to-2.4GHz Arm Cortex-A76 (16nm)
- GPU: Broadcom Videocore-VII
- {Hardware} video decode: H.265 4k60
- {Hardware} video encode: None
- “Southbridge”chip: Raspberry Pi RP1 (40nm)
- RAM: 8GB LPDDR4x at 4,267MHz
- Storage: microSD (32GB included)
- USB: 2× USB 3.0, 1× USB 2.0
- PCI Categorical: None
- Community: Gigabit Ethernet, dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, Bluetooth Low Vitality (BLE)
- Show outputs: 2× 4k60 HDMI
- Digicam inputs: None
- GPIO: 40-pin header (populated)
- Energy: USB Kind-C 5V 5A
- Price: $90; $120 for Desktop Package bundle with mouse, 27W USB Kind-C PSU, 2m micro-HDMI to HDMI cable, The Official Raspberry Pi Newbie’s Information e-book
The Raspberry Pi Monitor is a good companion for the Raspberry Pi 500, and might be powered from a USB port. (📷: Gareth Halfacree)
Raspberry Pi 15.6″ Monitor:
- Dimension: 15.6″, 16:9 facet ratio
- Panel: IPS LCD, matte anti-glare coating
- Decision: 1920×1080 (Full HD), 60Hz
- Colour depth: 24-bit, 8bpc, 16.2 million colours
- Brightness: 250cd/m² (typical)
- Audio: 2× 1.2W audio system, 3.5mm headphone jack
- Inputs: 1× HDMI 1.4
- Energy: 5V 1.5A through USB Kind C, might be powered from a Raspberry Pi USB port at diminished brightness and quantity
- Stand: Adjustable, VESA mount factors
- Worth: $100
Externally, the Raspberry Pi 500 appears to be like rather a lot like a Raspberry Pi 400. The identical chiclet-style keyboard, with solely a minor change to the format to offer a devoted energy button on the top-right, in the identical slightly-angled plastic housing. The 2-tone red-and-white chassis is gone, although, changed by a pure-white colorway — although the presence of a marking for shade on the packaging suggests {that a} black variant might observe within the close to future.
All of the ports you’d count on are current and proper, although in a unique order to the Raspberry Pi 400. (📷: Gareth Halfacree)
You will discover the ports on the rear of the machine, subsequent to a useful Kensington-style locking slot for safety. The brand new machine consists of all the identical ports because the Raspberry Pi 400, although in a unique order: from left to proper you will discover a single USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 Kind-A ports, a microSD card slot with a bundled Raspberry Pi-brand 32GB card pre-installed, a USB Kind-C energy enter, two micro-HDMI ports every good for a 4k60 exterior show, a 40-pin general-purpose enter/output (GPIO) port coated by a detachable rubber protector, and a gigabit Ethernet port.
Crack open the screwless chassis and you will find one other acquainted pal: a chunky slab of metallic, performing to each defend the electronics and as a heatsink for the hot-running Broadcom BCM2712 system-on-chip. There aren’t any fancy fins right here, and nowhere to mount a fan; the graceful metallic cools the chip totally passively, and — as you will see later in our overview — does a surprisingly good job of it.
There’s proof of both a last-minute rethink or, hopefully, plans for a higher-end mannequin with M.2 slot. (📷: Gareth Halfacree)
The one-board pc on the coronary heart of the Raspberry Pi 500, which is successfully an elongated Raspberry Pi 5, is revealed once you take away the heatsink. It is right here that you will see some surprises, together with a serious disappointment: whereas the PCB consists of footprints for an M.2 M-key slot, which needs to be linked to the BCM2712’s PCI Categorical Gen. 2 lane, it is unpopulated — that means there is no option to join a Non-Unstable Reminiscence Categorical (NVMe) drive, or different PCIe gadget, to the Raspberry Pi 500.
The presence of the footprint, although, suggests two potentialities. The least seemingly, given Raspberry Pi’s standard consideration to element, is that the exclusion of the M.2 slot was a last-minute choice reached too late to revamp the PCB. Extra seemingly is that the footprint is there for a possible successor gadget — additionally hinted at by the presence of a lot of unpopulated footprints to the upper-left of the board, together with one connector that may come out on the rear the place the Kensington-compatible safety slot at present sits.
The monitor’s adjustable kickstand hides an HDMI enter, USB Kind-C energy, and a headphone output, and might be flipped up to make use of the VESA mounting factors. (📷: Gareth Halfacree)
Similtaneously the Raspberry Pi 500, Raspberry Pi has launched its first in-house consumer-grade monitor — separate from the hobbyist- and industrial-focused touchscreen panels it has launched up to now. This can be a slick 15.6″ Full HD unit with anti-glare display, built-in stereo audio system, headphone output, and a single HDMI enter, and it has one function that makes it a great companion for the Raspberry Pi 500: it may be powered from one of many USB ports with out requiring a devoted energy provide. Doing so, nevertheless, does restrict the brightness to 60% and the amount to 50%; utilizing a devoted energy provide able to 5V at 1.5A or larger unlocks full brightness and quantity.
The monitor’s adjustable stand is practical, although for those who favor your monitor to be raised increased or at a 90° angle to the desk you will need to splash out for a third-party VESA-compatible desk stand. The VESA mounting factors, in the meantime, can solely be used when the stand is pushed all the best way to the highest of the monitor — that means they can not be used to mount a Raspberry Pi, or different compact pc, in a VESA-compatible case, except you fancy propping the monitor up towards a close-by wall.
Efficiency
When the Raspberry Pi 400 launched 4 years in the past, it did so with an attention-grabbing bonus: an additional 300MHz on the CPU clock, in comparison with the inventory settings for the Raspberry Pi 4 at launch. This time round, there is no such tweak: the Raspberry Pi 500’s BCM2712 runs its 4 Arm Cortex-A76 CPU cores and Broadcom Videocore-VII GPU on the similar pace because the Raspberry Pi 5.
The identical outdated story: the Raspberry Pi 500 performs the identical because the Raspberry Pi 5, which is to say two to 3 occasions sooner than its predecessor. (📷: Gareth Halfacree)
Anybody who’s learn our overview of the Raspberry Pi 5 — or the recently-launched Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5, the computer-on-module constructed across the similar BCM2712 chip — will know precisely what meaning: something between a doubling to a tripling in efficiency for real-world workloads in comparison with the Raspberry Pi 400. Precise efficiency positive factors will fluctuate, naturally, however our testing revealed that desktop duties like picture modifying, optical character recognition, and internet app use get pleasure from a 1.95×, 2.19×, and a couple of.94× efficiency enhance respectively.
There’s one other performance-boosting function of the Raspberry Pi 500 over its predecessor, too: a doubling of RAM, from 4GB to 8GB. On the time of writing, that was the one variant of Raspberry Pi 500 obtainable — although ought to a successor with a practical M.2 slot actually be within the works, it is potential that it might launch with a 16GB choice to match the top-end mannequin of Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5. There’s additionally the potential of a cost-reduced 4GB variant, which might nonetheless present loads of reminiscence for many duties bar on-device machine studying and multi-tab internet searching — however, up to now, Raspberry Pi’s saying nothing about its roadmap.
The efficiency uplift is seen in each artificial benchmarks, like Linpack, and real-world workloads. (📷: Gareth Halfacree)
An enormous situation with the Raspberry Pi 5’s out-of-the-box efficiency is in how sizzling the BCM2712 chip runs: below sustained all-core CPU and GPU workloads the processor’s thermal throttle level is hit in as little as 30 seconds, dropping the clock pace from 2.4GHz to 1.5GHz. It is for that reason the official Raspberry Pi 5 case features a cooling fan — and why Raspberry Pi additionally affords an non-obligatory heatsink and fan meeting. With only a slab of metallic, sandwiched between two piece of plastic, you would be forgiven for pondering warmth will likely be a priority for the Raspberry Pi 500 too — however, fortunately, you would be improper.
Underneath our thermal torture check — during which the CPU and GPU cores are loaded with an artificially-taxing steady workload for ten minutes, then allowed to chill — the Raspberry Pi 500 maintained its full 2.4GHz clock pace for everything of the run. In truth, it by no means even received near throttling: the best temperature we recorded was 68°C (154.4°F), and the temperature dropped quickly as soon as the check was over. For anybody who finds the quiet however audible whine of the Raspberry Pi 5’s fan choices an annoyance, then, the Raspberry Pi 500 might be the reply.
Regardless of the dearth of fan, the Raspberry Pi 500 actually retains its cool: even our thermal torture check did not have it sweating. (📷: Gareth Halfacree)
The most important shock got here throughout our testing of the Raspberry Pi 500’s energy draw. The doubling-or-better in efficiency of the Raspberry Pi 5 got here at the price of elevated energy draw, and the identical is true of the Raspberry Pi 500 — however solely below load. When absolutely loaded on the CPU and GPU, the Raspberry Pi 500 drew 9.7W — a roughly 40% improve over the 6.97W of the Raspberry Pi 400. At idle, although, it drew simply 2.28W — lower than the two.48W of its predecessor. As with earlier fashions, nevertheless, there is a phantom energy draw situation: with the Raspberry Pi 500 “turned off,” however prepared to reply to a press of the ability change, we measured a steady draw of 1.57W — which may solely be prevented by bodily unplugging the ability cable.
Commerce-offs
With its built-in keyboard, which is totally practical if nothing significantly particular, excessive efficiency, and passive cooling, the Raspberry Pi 500 might seem to be the proper gadget for anybody contemplating a Raspberry Pi 5 — however there are trade-offs to contemplate. In addition to the positive factors, there are a number of losses — the most important of which is that there is no option to entry the BCM2712’s PCIe Gen. 2 lane, that means no help for NVMe storage, the Raspberry Pi M.2 HAT+, or the Raspberry Pi AI HAT+.
That is the hardest blow, but it surely’s not the one one to contemplate. The built-in keyboard implies that you are right down to only one user-accessible USB 2.0 port as a substitute of two, and the positioning of the 40-pin GPIO header on the rear makes it tough to make use of with no third-party extension cable and breakout. Just like the Raspberry Pi 400, there are additionally no MIPI Digicam Serial Interface (CSI) inputs — and no Show Serial Interface (DSI) outputs both, in comparison with two mixed CSI/DSI ports on the Raspberry Pi 5.
Having the PCB present a transparent place for an M.2 slot, full with a number of mounting factors, is an actual tease. (📷: Gareth Halfacree)
One other loss is in Energy-over-Ethernet (PoE) help, which is achievable on the Raspberry Pi 5 with an non-obligatory HAT however unsupported on the Raspberry Pi 500. That one’s an actual disgrace, particularly given that you could energy the Raspberry Pi Monitor from one of many Raspberry Pi 500’s USB ports: with the ability to arrange a fully-functional pc and 15.6″ Full HD show with nothing going to the wall however a single Ethernet cable would have made for some very tidy desks.
For those who’re not planning on utilizing PCIe gadgets, do not want MIPI CSI or DSI ports, can deal with a somewhat-awkward GPIO header place, do not want PoE, and may stay with three USB ports or are prepared to select up Raspberry Pi’s recently-released USB hub, there’s rather a lot to advocate the Raspberry Pi 500. With its built-in keyboard, all you want to get began is a mouse, show, and energy provide — and for those who decide up the Raspberry Pi 500 Desktop Package, you will get the mouse, energy provide, and an acceptable HDMI cable included alongside a duplicate of The Official Raspberry Pi Newbie’s Information. Simply add a monitor — perhaps even, the corporate certainly hopes, the brand new Raspberry Pi Monitor — and also you’re off to the races.
Conclusion
For those who’re a convert to the keyboard-computer type issue, both because of fond reminiscences of the Atari 400, Commodore Amiga 500, and different Eighties and Nineties microcomputers that gave Raspberry Pi its inspiration for what was as soon as often called “Venture Gemini” or as an proprietor of an current Raspberry Pi 400, the Raspberry Pi 500 is a stellar instance. For these a four-year-post-launch improve, you will get a serious bump in efficiency — and for those who’ve been aggravated on the thermal efficiency of the Raspberry Pi 5, its bigger sibling will flip that frown the wrong way up.
Each the device-only pack and Desktop Package bundle embrace a 32GB microSD card with Raspberry Pi OS pre-loaded. (📷: Gareth Halfacree)
This time round, although, it is potential Raspberry Pi has minimize one nook too many. The Raspberry Pi 400 packed many of the options of the Raspberry Pi 4, with the most important loss being an absence of MIPI CSI inputs; the Raspberry Pi 500, sadly, goes a number of steps additional, and with the user-accessible PCIe lane being an enormous draw for the Raspberry Pi 5 its removing within the Raspberry Pi 500 is more likely to sting.
That there are footprints on the PCB for an M.2 slot, and mounting factors for M.2 modules, might give purchasers a cause to pause: whereas the Raspberry Pi 500 is a implausible gadget in its personal proper, if there are plans to launch an upgraded model with M.2 help — which, on the time of writing, Raspberry Pi had not confirmed — may or not it’s price ready for that? For anybody in search of most efficiency, whether or not for storage or for accelerating on-device machine studying and synthetic intelligence workloads, it might be prudent to carry fireplace on a purchase order — however the Raspberry Pi vary has by no means been about uncooked efficiency, and for those who’re that targeted on uncooked compute energy an Intel- or AMD-powered mini-PC will ship rather more bang for not that rather more cash.
For those who favored the Raspberry Pi 400, you will love the Raspberry PI 500 — however is there higher nonetheless to come back? (📷: Gareth Halfacree)
For everybody else, the Raspberry Pi 500 is simple to advocate. The keyboard is comfy, and someway manages to be smaller than most regardless of additionally together with a fully-functional private pc. At $90, it is very fairly priced in comparison with a Raspberry Pi 5 8GB board — and the inclusion of a 32GB Raspberry Pi-branded microSD card, pre-loaded with the most recent Raspberry Pi OS, is a pleasant bonus. Add within the Raspberry Pi Monitor for an additional $100, an influence provide, and your alternative of mouse, and you have a compact and well-designed workstation that’ll see you thru the subsequent 4 years or so with ease.
The Raspberry Pi 500, Raspberry Pi 500 Desktop Package, and Raspberry Pi Monitor are actually obtainable to order from Raspberry Pi resellers; the Raspberry Pi 500 is on the market in US and UK keyboard layouts at launch, with German, Spanish, French, Italian, Nordic, and Japanese variants to observe within the coming months; the Raspberry Pi Monitor is on the market in white and pink now, with a black model due in early 2025.
