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The Raspberry Pi 400 is a fully functional computer in a keyboard case. Although it is not a laptop—there is no display, touchpad, or inbuilt battery—it takes up as much space as a Logitech keyboard and offers enough power for most computing tasks.
The Raspberry Pi 400 Is the Perfect Portable Computer
Released in November 2020, the Raspberry Pi 400 was a follow-up to theRaspberry Pi 4B single-board computerreleased a year earlier. It uses the same Broadcom BCM2711 chip with a quad-core Cortex-A72 CPU and 4GB of memory but contained in a membrane keyboard casing with slightly improved thermals, a higher default clock speed, and a slightly streamlined setup process. Although it has been a few years since wereviewed the Raspberry Pi 400, it still holds up as a great piece of kit.
The Raspberry Pi 400 is more portable than a regular laptop and easier to use than the Raspberry Pi 4B. It is also extremely affordable, at $70 for the keyboard computer alone and $100 for the “Personal Computer Kit,” which includes the Raspberry Pi 400, a mouse, power supply, micro-HDMI to HDMI cable, and other peripherals. The kit also includes a beginner’s guide, although it is rather focused on the single-board computers in the series.
Hardware hackers will be pleased to know that the Pi 400 features a40-pin GPIO (General-Purpose Input/Output) headerfor interfacing with sensors, add-on boards, displays, and other electronic components.
I use my Raspberry Pi 400 for writing and editing while away from my main PC. Other tasks it handles fairly well include light surfing, watching videos (streams HD content smoothly), testing Linux software, audio streaming, programming, and retro gaming/emulation in general.
Personally, I wish the typing experience was a bit better, but I guess a full-size mechanical keyboard computer with n-key rollover, backlighting, and tactile feedback wouldn’t be priced at $70. The desktop experience feels slower than I’m used to, which is the main factor keeping it from becoming my primary computer.
Setting Up the Raspberry Pi 400
The Raspberry Pi 400 is “BYODKM (Bring Your Own Display, Keyboard, and Mouse)” but you get a keyboard and a mouse too if you buy the full kit. Setup is as easy as it gets and takes less than ten minutes.
Required Accessories
Most of the accessories listed below are included in the kit, but you’re able to purchase them separately.
A Raspberry Pi 400 connected to a 10.1" touchscreen display and a 40000mAh power bank, all mounted in a rugged Plano box, makes for a nice, portable rig if you have the patience to set it up.
The Raspberry Pi Operating System Is Familiar to Linux Users
Die-hard Windows fans, beware: the Raspberry Pi 400 is best suited for running a Linux operating system, like theofficial Raspberry Pi OSbased on Debian Linux. The Raspberry Pi OS is preloaded on the microSD card that comes with the Personal Computer kit. It comes in 32-bit and 64-bit variants, with a Lite version for headless use.
Be sure to choose a high-endurance card with a storage capacity of at least 8GB for the desktop version of Raspberry Pi OS and 4GB for the Lite version.
With theoperating system installed on your storage deviceof choice, you can proceed to connect the Raspberry Pi 400 to a power supply and boot up the system.
The Welcome Wizard appears when Raspberry Pi OS runs for the first time to walk you through the initial setup. With the Raspberry Pi 400 configured, you can move around the desktop environment, transfer files to the device, download software, and enjoy the unique Linux experience.
The 40-Pin GPIO Header Makes Physical Computing Possible
A typical PC has ports that interact with hardware in a predefined manner. This differs from microcontroller boards (such as Arduino), which have pins for controlling and interacting with hardware through software. The Raspberry Pi bridges the gap, providing computing power and low-level hardware control via the 40-pin General-Purpose Input-Output header.
This header at the back of the keyboard makes the Pi 400 usable for physical computing and hardware tinkering. Due to its location, you will need a40-Pin Ribbon Cableor aHeader Adapter Boardto connect electronic components to the header. It opens up a new world of computing, andthere are heaps of Raspberry Pi 400 projects you can try.
Is the Raspberry Pi 400 Good Enough for Everyday Use?
The Raspberry Pi 400 is a great, ultraportable device and arguably the most affordable and accessible keyboard computer on the market. It is perfect for light productivity tasks such as word processing, graphics design and editing, and coding.
One might say that thePi 400 isn’t a good laptop replacementsince it performs so poorly at playing modern video games, editing videos, and streaming 1080p movies. However, it’s a $70 computer housed inside a membrane keyboard that can interface with low-level hardware.
It won’t be the perfect fit for everyone, but for those who prize portability and flexibility over performance, the Raspberry Pi 400 is the ultimate personal computer. If you need to squeeze more power out of the device, it is possible tooverclock the Raspberry Pi 400.
