Raspberry Pi 400
Taking a leaf out of 80s computer design, the Raspberry Pi Foundation has put its latest Raspberry Pi inside a keyboard.
$110 (base unit), $152 (kit) | www.raspberrypi.org
The Raspberry Pi Model B has had the same board layout since the Raspberry Pi B+ arrived in 2014.
Sure, the Raspberry Pi 4 swapped the Ethernet and USB ports around, but the basic design has persisted. So when we received a parcel from Raspberry Pi Trading and opened the box to find a white keyboard, we were somewhat puzzled as to the contents. But not for long. Within this compact and well-designed keyboard is a Raspberry Pi 400, a variant of the Raspberry Pi 4 4GB that’s been designed specifically to make the most of its new surroundings.
The device is being sold as a single unit for $110 or as a $152 kit with mouse, power supply, cables, micro SD card and a copy of The Official Raspberry Pi Beginner’s Guide. Either way, the Raspberry Pi 400 could be the ideal way to introduce the Raspberry Pi to your home.
Meet the Rasptrum
If you’re of a certain age then you’ll remember a time where computers were hidden underneath a keyboard. The Raspberry Pi 400 brings that aesthetic back and it works rather well. The compact keyboard measures just over 11x4.6x0.7 inches (283x120x20mm) and is fairly comfortable to type on. We won’t be writing our next thesis with this keyboard, but it’s fine for daily use.
At the rear of the keyboard are all of the ports, the largest of which is a 40-pin header for the GPIO. Moving along we find a micro SD card slot, two micro HDMI ports that offer 4K output, two USB 3.0 ports and a single USB 2.0 port, with a Gigabit Ethernet port rounding off the Raspberry Pi 400’s range of inputs.
Despite the change in form factor, this is still a Raspberry Pi 4 4GB and as such it behaves in much the same manner. There are a few differences, though. The Raspberry Pi 400 lacks the CSI and DSI connectors that are used for the Camera and Official Touchscreen. Without these connectors there’s no way to use those devices. This loss of the touchscreen connector isn’t such a big deal, but the same can’t be said about the loss of the camera connector. The Raspberry Pi cameras are cheap and effective add-ons that provide a fun stream of projects. Essentially, if you want to create camera projects, then the Raspberry Pi 400 isn’t for you.
Accessing the GPIO is relatively easy. You can use jumper wires to make connections to a breadboard, but connecting a HAT or pHAT isn’t possible without a breakout board such as Pimoroni’s HAT Hacker HAT. We understand why this had to be the only way to break out the GPIO, but it remains an obstacle for GPIO projects. With a breakout connected we quickly attached an Explorer HAT Pro to test compatibility and everything worked as expected.
The Raspberry Pi 400 shares the ability to boot from USB. We attached an NVMe drive containing Ubuntu 20.10 via USB3 and the Pi 400 booted directly from it. There were no issues and our experience was pretty slick.
Hey there, hot stuff
At its heart, the Raspberry Pi 400 is a Raspberry Pi 4 and it’s well known that the Pi 4 can become rather warm in use. In general use the CPU will stay cool enough to remain well under the thermal throttle limit of 85°C, but overclockers eager to squeeze extra performance from the CPU will often push those limits. The stock speed of the Pi 400 is 1.8GHz. That’s 300MHz more than the standard Raspberry Pi 4 and so it’s surprising that the idle temperature of the Pi 400 is 31°C, compared to our “control” Raspberry Pi 4 which was at 40°C.
During our Stressberry test we saw the Pi 400 reach a peak of 46°C. That’s almost 20°C lower than a stock Raspberry Pi 4! We wanted to push the Raspberry Pi 400 a little harder and so we overclocked to 2.1GHz and repeated the tests. The idle temperature remained a cool 32°C, with a peak of 54°C during Stressberry. These temperatures are great, so we wondered if we could push things a little further? We went for 2.2GHz because it was the highest stable overclock that we could achieve. This resulted in an idle temperature of 34°C and a peak Stressberry temperature of 57°C.
Keeping cool under pressure
How can the Raspberry Pi 400 run at 1.8GHz and yet remain so cool? We asked that question to Eben Upton, chief executive of Raspberry Pi Trading. “We’re able to operate at a higher voltage, and thus generate more heat, because we have a more sophisticated thermal solution. So we took the decision to factoryqualify Pi 400 to the higher operating frequency. It’s a unique capability for the Pi 400.”
With this news spurring us on we quickly took the Raspberry Pi 400 apart and first noticed an exceptionally large heatsink. This acts as a ‘shield’ between the keyboard and the Pi 400 board, with a depression and thermal pad making contact with the system on chip (SoC). This heatsink is remarkable and largely responsible for the great temperatures and overclocking potential of the Raspberry Pi 400.
We asked Eben to explain why the Raspberry Pi 400 was created. “The next step in our mission is to provide cost-effective, high-performance, general-purpose PCs to everyone who needs/wants one,” he said. “This form factor was very popular for non-mobile computers in the past, and we’ve drifted away from it, in much the same way that we drifted away from programmable computers. So this is a conviction product just like the Raspberry Pi itself: there’s a latent demand for this sort of compact PC.”
What does that mean for potential use cases? This is a Pi for learning. In a similar vein to 1980s home computers, it’s a machine that we can simply connect to a television and a power source, then start learning to code. The Raspberry Pi 400 can also be used as a basic desktop computer and is more than capable of handling your general activities.
While a departure from the usual pared-back Pi experience, the Raspberry Pi 400 is a great all-rounder. We get the same Raspberry Pi experience, but with far fewer wires and setup. As a package the Raspberry Pi 400 is an ideal present for someone taking their first steps in coding. The awkward GPIO access and lack of camera and display ports are the only negatives for the Raspberry Pi 400. All in all, it’s the ideal Raspberry Pi for those new to the community. LES POUNDER
A superb introduction to Pi computing, the Raspberry Pi 400 is a great way to enjoy a slice of Raspberry Pi.