The makers of the Raspberry Pi 4 have today unveiled the Raspberry Pi 400, a compact keyboard with an integrated 4GB RAM Raspberry 4.
The new design takes most of the work out of setting up a Raspberry Pi 4 single-board computer (SBC) as a computer, which usually requires hooking it up to a keyboard, monitor and mouse.
With the Raspberry Pi 400, just a few cables, a monitor and mouse are needed to have a basic desktop computer to start programming, surf the web, and enjoy 4K media streaming.
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Just in time for the holiday season, the Raspberry Pi 400 keyboard with a computer costs $70. Alternatively, $100 buys you the Raspberry Pi 400 Personal Computer Kit, which includes the Raspberry Pi 400, a USB mouse and USB-C power supply, an SD card with Raspberry Pi OS pre-installed, a micro HDMI cable for the display, and a Raspberry Pi Beginner’s Guide.
The Raspberry Pi 4GB RAM version costs $55 by itself, and the Raspberry Pi 400 lowers the technical barrier for those who want to begin exploring programming on the low-cost computer and may inspire them to look at bigger projects using the Raspberry Pi SBC.
The Raspberry Pi 400 takes its design cue from the home computers of the 1980s that had their motherboard built into the keyboard, such as the BBC Micro, ZX Spectrum and Commodore Amiga.
Since the Raspberry Pi 400 is based on the Raspberry Pi 4, most of the computer features are the same. However, the Raspberry Pi 400’s Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 (Arm v8) 64-bit SoC runs at 1.8GHz. As noted by CNX-Software, the Raspberry Pi 4’s SoC runs at 1.5GHz.
Other key differences are that the Raspberry Pi 400 only offers HDMI for audio output where as the Pi 4 SBC also has a 3.5mm audio and video jack. There’s also one fewer USB 2.0 port on the Raspberry Pi 400.
The Raspberry Pi 400 does feature a horizontal 40-pin GPIO header on the rear of the keyboard, so it’s possible to add physical HAT extensions, such as a camera. There’s also a built-in heatsink in the Raspberry Pi 400 that’s not included with the SBC.
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But the Raspberry Pi 400 isn’t a device for hardware hackers. As Raspberry Pi notes in the user manual: “There are no user-serviceable parts inside Raspberry Pi 400, and opening the unit is likely to damage the product and will invalidate the warranty.”
Full specifications for the Raspberry Pi 400 are:
- Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 – Arm v8 – 64-bit SoC at 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
- Two × USB 3.0 and 1 × USB 2.0 ports
- Horizontal 40-pin GPIO header
- Two × micro HDMI ports – supporting up to 4Kp60
- H.265 – 4Kp60 decode; H.264 – 1,080p60 decode, 1,080p30 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 286mm × 122mm × 23mm
The Raspberry Pi 400 features a horizontal 40-pin GPIO header on the rear of the keyboard, so it’s possible to add physical HAT extensions, such as a camera.
Image: Raspberry Pi Trading
For $100 you get the Raspberry Pi 400 Personal Computer Kit, which includes the Raspberry Pi 400, a USB mouse and USB-C power supply, an SD card with Raspberry Pi OS pre-installed, a micro HDMI cable for the display, and a Raspberry Pi Beginner’s Guide.
Image: Raspberry Pi Trading
Raspberry Pi has posted a video about the new Raspberry Pi computer in a keyboard. Source: Raspberry Pi Trading/YouTube
