The Raspberry Pi 400, at first glance, looks like any other keyboard. Sure, it looks pretty; it’s great for aesthetics. But behind the “ordinary keyboard” facade is actually a full-fledged computer!
Yep! Finally, the company that designs that board computer that a lot of nerds use to power their own mini-PCs has built a proper PC of their own. And why not? People have been using it to make super affordable computers anyway, so might as well give them what they want, right? And who wouldn’t want a keyboard to go along with it?
Raspberry Pi 400: A Computer Inside a Keyboard
If it hasn’t sunk in yet, the Raspberry Pi 400 crams the board computer inside a keyboard enclosure. The keyboard, which comes with a standard 78-key QWERTY setup, is riddled with some connectors in the rear part of the gadget.
It’s as straightforward as it gets: simply plug it in, attach your mouse and monitor, choose a power source, and insert your microSD card into the slot to load up your operating system.
Specs and Design
The Raspberry Pi 400 is actually based on the Raspberry Pi 4, so don’t be surprised if you realize that most of the computer features are pretty much alike. What makes the two different from each other is that the newly released Pi’s Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 (Arm v8) 64-bit SoC runs at 1.8GHz. Its predecessor, meanwhile, runs at 1.5GHz.
Moreover, the newer Pi only has HDMI for audio output whereas the older iteration has a 3.5mm video and audio jack. On the Raspberry Pi 400, there’s also one less of a USB 2.0 port.
The designers of Raspberry Pi have since revealed some details about the makeover, saying that the newly announced Pi 400 is a modern take on far less powerful classics from the ‘80s, specifically mentioning Commodore Amiga, ZX Spectrum, and BBC Micro.
If you’re familiar with the Raspberry Pi 4, you’ll notice that it’s quite squarish, whereas the Pi 400 is more elongated so that the printed circuit board (PCB) would fit the dimensions of the keyboard.
Both the Pi 400 and Pi 4 share a similar circuit layout for power management, memory, and processor. But the designers had to relocate the ports and the GPIO connector to follow the natural design of the keyboard.
How Does the Pi 400 Fare for Lefties?
According to Raspberry Pi senior principal engineer Simon Martin, the Raspberry Pi 400 wasn’t designed for lefties, despite the USB ports situated on the left side of the keyboard.
Fans have been raising their feature, to which Martin finally addressed in a blog. He conceded it was going to be challenging for right-handed people, but with a Bluetooth mouse, everything should be smooth-sailing.
Buy the New Raspberry Pi 400
This cool computer-in-a-keyboard costs $70 if you only buy the keyboard. If you want the entire 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, you’ll have to shell out $100.
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