Raspberry Pi today announced the Raspberry Pi 500, an updated version of its keyboard PC, this one powered by the guts of the Raspberry Pi 5.
And it’s also announced a device many1 won’t have expected: an official monitor!
Throughout 2024, Raspberry Pi has announced 20+ new and updated products, ranging from hardware add-ons like a AI accelerator and USB hub, to official branded SD cards and SSDs, to updated devices like the new Compute Module 5 and Pico 2 – plus more!
It’s crazy to think there anything left for them to announce.
Yet rumour has it the company plans to announce something else next month – intriguing!
That’s for the future; let’s focus on today’s device drop.
Raspberry Pi 500
Given the success the Raspberry Pi 400 (with its internals based on the Raspberry Pi 4B) saw a follow-up harnessing the significant performance leap the latest SBC series offers was a case of when, not if.
The Raspberry Pi 500 keyboard PC is basically what you’d expect: same overall design as the Raspberry Pi 400, but utilising the faster Broadcom BCM2712 quad-core Cortex-A76 SoC from the Raspberry Pi 5.
There are some differences though.
For one, the Raspberry Pi 500 has double the amount of RAM of its predecessor, now sitting at a healthy 8GB. This is welcome boost given the device’s positioning as a plug and play desktop PC (where more RAM is always helpful).
Secondly, the Raspberry Pi 500 ports (accessible on the rear) have been rearranged. The position of the GPIO header and 3x USB A ports swaps over, and the location of the USB-C power port moved — same selection as before, just a different order.
As there’s not an actual Pi 5 SBC wedged inside the (now entirely white) plastic case, the Pi 500 packs the same tech on to a bespoke mainboard designed to suit the form-factor. As the Pi 5 can run hot there’s an integrated aluminium heatsink, but no fan.
There’s no way to add NVMe SSD storage to the Pi 500 as there no PCIe port is exposed. Yet the board itself has areas marked for for NVMe/PCIe, PoE, and an internal battery but these are not populated. Is a ‘deluxe’ model offering all that planned?
Raspberry Pi 500 is priced at £85/$90 for the keyboard unit on its own plus a 32GB Raspberry Pi-branded SD card (but nothing else, like a power supply).
A £113/$120 Desktop Kit offers a full package with official Raspberry Pi USB mouse, 27W USB-C power supply, 2m micro HDMI to HDMI cable, and the latest edition of the ‘beginners’ guide book.
Raspberry Pi Monitor
It’s the official Raspberry Pi Monitor which has me excited.
Portable monitors aren’t rare or expensive but to have an official one with decent specs, and a unique design taking into account how Pi’s are used (the cutout at the bottom is to thread cables through).
But what are its specs like?
The Raspberry Pi Monitor offers a 15.6-inch IPS LCD display with anti-glare, pushing FHD resolution of 1920×1080 @ 60 Hz. Max brightness of 250 nits, 45% colour gamut, and 80-degree viewing angle.
Ports wise, there’s a full-size HDMI in port, front-facing stereo speakers (2x 1.2W, but don’t expect much), and a 3.5mm headphone jack (audio out only) so you can hook up some better USB powered speakers if you want.
There are physical volume, brightness, and power buttons, and 3 mounting options including an integrated kickstand and VESA mount points (so you could add an adjustable VESA desk stand for a more traditional monitor look).
Raspberry Pi Monitor is powered by a 1.5A 5V USB-C. This can be from a dedicated power supply or through a USB-A to Type-C cable powered by directly by a USB port on a Raspberry Pi (or another device as it’s just a monitor).
However, brightness is limited to 60% and volume to 50% when the monitor is powered by a USB port. To achieve full brightness and sound a separate power supply is required.
The Raspberry Pi Monitor is priced at £94/$100. It comes a USB power cable (no adapter) and a user manual.
Available from Today
The Raspberry Pi 500 (stand-alone and in desktop kit form) and the new 15.6 Raspberry Pi Monitor are available to order from today from approved Raspberry Pi resellers – i.e., at the prices listed above.
If buying any of these devices from unapproved resellers you should expect to pay more.
If you don’t need the power of the Pi 500 you may be interested to hear that the Raspberry Pi 400 has gotten a $10 price cut – not a huge saving, but better than nothing!
- The monitor was shown at a tech event earlier this year so some will have been aware of it ↩︎