New Raspberry Pi 500 and monitor land in time for the holidays

While the Raspberry Pi SBCs (single board computers) are perfect for those who want a computer to be at the heart of a project, for some the idea of trying to use a circuit board as a computer fills them with terror and dread. For those who need something a bit more civilized, Raspberry Pi has released the new Pi 500.

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Looking like the Pi 400 that came before it, it’s a Raspberry Pi 5 housed inside a nifty keyboard. On the back of the unit are two USB 3 connectors, a single USB 2 port, a 40-pin GPIO header, and a USB-C connector to supply the 5V of power needed to run the Pi.

There’s also a built-in one-piece aluminum heatsink that allows the Raspberry Pi 500 to run full throttle for extended periods of time without getting too hot.

Raspberry Pi 500 tech specs

• CPU: 2.4GHz quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A76 CPU, with cryptography extensions, 512KB per-core L2 caches and a 2MB shared L3 cache
• RAM: 8GB LPDDR4X-4267 SDRAM
• Wi-Fi: Dual-band (2.4GHz and 5.0GHz) IEEE 802.11b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi®
• Storage: 32GB Class A2 microSD included
• Bluetooth: Bluetooth 5.0, BLE
• Ports:
  Gigabit Ethernet
  2 × USB 3.0 port and 1 × USB 2.0 port
  Horizontal 40-pin GPIO header
  2 × micro HDMI port (supports up to 4K@60)
• SD card support: microSD card slot for operating system and data storage
• Keyboard: 78-, 79- or 83-key compact keyboard (depending on regional variant)
• Power: 5V DC via USB connector

The Pi 500 can be purchased as a standalone unit or as a desktop kit that includes the cables and power supply needed to make it all work. 

To complement the Pi 500 there’s also a new monitor. The Raspberry Pi Monitor — yes, that’s what it’s called — features a 15.6-inch screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 and an aspect ratio of 16:9 and a modest brightness of 250 nits. Two 1.2W speakers and volume and brightness control buttons are built into the bezel.

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And no, before you ask, the monitor does not feature a touchscreen display.

The Raspberry Pi 500 is priced at $90, while the Raspberry Pi Monitor is $100.