After being announced back in June of 2019, Raspberry Pi 4 is getting a handful of upgrades and pricing changes today. The design is remaining largely the same but the Raspberry Pi foundation is now doubling the amount of RAM on its entry-level model. Alongside that bit of news is a reduction in price to $35 and delivering more power than ever before to the popular microcomputer platform. You can find full details and availability information, along with today’s press release down below.
Double RAM and a drop in price
As we’ve seen across the market in the last 12-months, dropping RAM prices have finally been passed along to consumers. Although it may still be less expensive to upgrade on your own. Raspberry Pi is adjusting prices on its fourth-generation model today to reflect this trend.
The Raspberry Pi foundation is now starting its offerings at $35, which is the same as last summer. However, the 2GB model is now the de facto entry-level offering, which is down from its previous $45 price tag. That’s arguably the most compelling price meets value offering from Raspberry Pi in its history, delivering both an affordable price and plenty of power for DIY tasks.
Essentially, today’s move is focused around the inability of 1GB worth of RAM to handle more intensive tasks. Raspberry Pi notes that it was enough for most home theater setups, but in terms of a full-on desktop experience, more power was required.
Here’s a full breakdown of specs on the new entry-level model in comparison to the original Raspberry Pi:
- 40× the CPU performance
- 8× the memory
- 10× the I/O bandwidth
- 4× the number of pixels on screen
- Two screens instead of one
- Dual-band wireless networking
Updated pricing is now reflected over at the official Raspberry Pi store. It’s also worth noting, if you are bent on getting the 1GB model, Raspberry Pi will continue to sell that offering at $35 for the foreseeable future.
Today’s news coincides with Pi’s birthday
Raspberry Pi is marking today’s news with its 11th birthday, noting that in the decade-plus since its inception, the popular microcomputing brand has sold over 30-million units.
You can learn more about the history of Raspberry Pi below.
[9to5-press-release]
A birthday gift: 2GB Raspberry Pi 4 now only $35
In two days’ time, it will be our eighth birthday (or our second, depending on your point of view). Many of you set your alarms and got up early on the morning of 29 February 2012, to order your Raspberry Pi from our newly minted licensee partners, RS Components and Premier Farnell. In the years since, we’ve sold over 30 million Raspberry Pi computers; we’ve seen our products used in an incredible range of applications all over the world (and occasionally off it); and we’ve found our own place in a community of makers, hobbyists, engineers and educators who are changing the world, one project, or one student, at a time.
When we first started talking about Raspberry Pi 1 Model B back in 2011, we were very clear about what we were trying to build: a desktop Linux PC with interfacing capabilities for $35. At the time, it seemed obvious that our low price point would come with compromises. Even though you could use your Raspberry Pi 1 to watch HD video, or play Quake 3, or compile the Linux kernel, or automate a factory, some things – like browsing modern, JavaScript-heavy websites – were out of reach.
Every subsequent product – from quad-core Raspberry Pi 2 in 2015, to 64-bit Raspberry Pi 3 in 2016, to Raspberry Pi 3+ in 2018 – whittled down those compromises a little further. By offering steadily increasing processing power at a time when the performance of traditional PCs had begun to stagnate, we were gradually able to catch up with typical PC use cases. With each generation, more people were able to use a Raspberry Pi as their daily-driver PC.
[/9to5-press-release]
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