Raspberry Pi 3 A+
Les Pounder sits down for another slice of “classic” Raspberry Pi, the last of the current generation. Does it still provide the nourishment that we crave?
Les Pounder sits down for another slice of “classic” Raspberry Pi, the last of the current generation. Does it still provide the nourishment that we crave?
The Model A Raspberry Pi is something of a rarity. Originally released as a cut-down version of the flagship model B, the A found a home with embedded projects. With the release of the A+ in 2014 we saw the new 40-pin GPIO and a new shape, but since then there have been no more A+ models. So it came as quite a surprise when the Raspberry Pi 3 A+ arrived.
The 3 A+ offers the same 1.4GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU as the 3 B+ but with only half the RAM (512MB), yet is still more powerful than the smaller Pi Zero W. It has just a single USB port, but retains the 40-pin GPIO, camera and display connectors plus the combined 3.5mm audio/video jack. The 3 A+ has the same Wi-Fi (2.4GHz and 5GHz) and Bluetooth 4.2 as the 3 B+. The 3 A+ doesn’t come with the improved Ethernet port, which means it also doesn’t support the recently released PoE HAT. Power requirements for the 3 A+ are the typical 5V supply and in our benchmarks the 3 A+ consumed approximately 830mA when under load for our sysbench tests, but at idle it only used 220mA. So this board isn’t as efficient as a Pi Zero, but it has similar efficiency compared to the 3 B+.
The test results are in…
We ran a few benchmarks and our traditional sysbench prime number test came in at 30.0373 seconds. That’s a full 1.8 seconds faster than the Pi 3 B+ we tested earlier this year. But this difference will be due to improvements made to the Raspbian operating system. In our Octane test which is used to benchmark JavaScript performance we saw a score of 2,538 for the 3 A+. That’s less than the 2,780 of the 3 B+ and that will be chiefly caused by the lack of RAM, but not a massive difference. But compared to our Pi Zero W score of 456 the 3 A+ is 5.5x faster! Our network tests connecting via a 5GHz router to an ethernetconnected laptop gave us a transfer rate of 96.6Mbits/sec, compared to 74.7Mbits/sec on the 3 B+. Again, this difference is most likely due to software updates.
To use the Raspberry Pi 3 A+ you’ll need to download and flash the latest Raspbian operating system, as older versions of Raspbian won’t boot using the new board.
But where does the 3 A+ sit in the range? Well, the Pi Zero is primarily used for embedded projects and robotics, and the model B boards are used for development and advanced projects. But the A+ offers the small size needed for embedded projects and robotics, but the power for advanced projects. So projects such as Google Assistant, Alexa, machine learning and OpenCV have the CPU grunt needed for smooth applications in a much smaller
package. The 3A+ would also be an awesome cost-effective platform for emulation and arcade cabinet builds, especially small cabinets. We have the power of the quad core CPU and the small footprint of the 3 A+, but it may take a few days for other distributions to catch up.
The Raspberry Pi 3 A+ offers a lot for £25. Sure, there are compromises but these are outweighed by the benefits of more power in a smaller package.
Eben Upton has confirmed that the 3 A+ will be the last of the “classic” Raspberry Pi platform; future boards will be based on newer and more powerful hardware. The 3 A+ is a fitting swansong for what’s been a remarkably disruptive platform. With that in mind we wonder how the Raspberry Pi 4 will continue the disruption.
Feat ures 9/ 10 Ease of use 9/ 10 Performance 9/ 10 Value 9/ 10