Electronics Weekly
Yes, that really is the whole computer
The computer is essentially a Raspberry Pi 4 built inside a keyboard – looking very almost identical to the neat official Raspberry Pi keyboard.
It comes with 4Gbyte of RAM and the processor running at 1.8GHz – rather than the 1.5GHz of Raspberry Pi 4, and retains twin HDMI outputs to drive two 4K displays (spec table below)
According to Raspberry Pi Trading: “Raspberry Pi 400 is ideal for surfing the web, creating and editing documents, watching videos, and learning to program using the Raspberry Pi OS desktop environment.”
Not wanting to lever apart the sample that Farnell kindly sent to de-centralised Electronics Weekly, I can only speculate that there is a whole new PCB inside the keyboard, with good heatsinking as I am looking at a CPU temperature of only 32°C as I type these words on it (and 38°C an hour later).
And what can I say except: It works, well (although see audio comment at the bottom).
The Pi 4 was the first Pi powerful enough to be a proper desktop replacement ( I use one for that), and the Pi 400 repackages that power into a lovely format for on-desk use.
What it does well is reduce the total number of cables trailing around the Pi, while still offering the standard 40 pin IO expansion port (along the back edge, orientated so that a HAT will stick up on edge with you looking at its underside).
That said, there is a minor trailing cable issue – when using a Raspberry Pi 4, the Pi can be tucked at the back of the desk leaving only two skinny cables trailing to the front – keyboard and mouse. This reduces to one skinny cable when using the Official Keyboard, as the Official Mouse plugs into one of the three USB 2 ports of the hub built into the keyboard through a short neat cable.
With Raspberry Pi 400, the mouse still plugs into one of the three USB ports on the rear edge (1x USB 2, 2x USB 3), leaving the power lead and HDMI cable trailing across the desk – still only two cables, but the HDMI cable is thicker and stiffer than a keyboard cable, and that becomes a pair of HDMI cables when using the dual display capability.
Along the back edge, total connector count is:
- 40 pin IO
- microSD Card for Raspberry Pi OS
- micro HDMI
- micro HDMI
- USB C power input
- USB 3 for general use
- USB 3 for general use
- USB 2 for general use
- Ethernet
- Physical anchor hole
Notice, that there is no 3.5mm connector for audio – so headphone and speakers will have to be Bluetooth, or through HDMI via an HDMI (not DVI) monitor equipped with speakers or an 3.5mm audio output.
Multiple keyboard styles will supported by variants of Raspberry P 400:
- UK
- US
- German
- French
- Italian
- Spanish
And the power adaptor comes in various forms for various nations.
Just like the Official Keyboard, the Pi 400 keyboard has a nice action – light and with a pleasant amount of travel.
Raspberry Pi 400 in a nut shell:
| Processor | Broadcom BCM2711quad-core Cortex-A72 64bit 1.8GHz ARM v8 on 28nm |
| RAM | 4GB LPDDR4-3200 |
| Connectivity | 2.4 and 5.0GHz IEEE 802.11b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Bluetooth 5.0, BLE (but see comment below for audio) Gigabit Ethernet 2 x USB 3.0 1 x USB 2.0 |
| GPIO | Horizontal 40-pin GPIO header |
| Video & sound | 2 x micro HDMI ports (supports up to 4Kp60) |
| Multimedia | H.265 (4Kp60 decode) H.264 (1080p60 decode 1080p30 encode) OpenGL ES 3.0 graphics |
| SD card support | MicroSD card slot for operating system and data storage |
| Keyboard | Compact 78- or 79-key depending on region |
| Power | 5V DC via USB connector |
| Operating | 0 to +50°C |
| Dimensions | 286 x 122 x 23mm (max) |
One last possible issue
I use a Raspberry Pi 4 (not 400) as a desktop replacement for all de-centralised Electronics Weekly work, using browser-based applications (maybe six tabs), plus adding GIMP for image editing (closed when not working on images) and occasionally Libre Office, and have noticed an increasing number of multi-second pauses in operation.
That said, these don’t cause crashes.
After re-loading Raspberry Pi OS, these disappeared, only to gradually re-appear.
Maybe this is something I am doing wrong, or maybe I am asking too much of such a small computer – I would be interested in the experiences of other Pi 4 users (comment below).
So far, the 400 has not paused.
Audio
Am I the only person to have to reboot a Pi 4 or Pi 400 to change Bluetooth music devices?
UPDATE – it seems that Raspberry Pi 4 and 400 have problems changing from one Bluetooth audio product to another – swapping speakers, for example. In my case, the headphones or speaker ‘pairs’ with the Pi (usually), but then remains silent if the sound source is from YouTube – have no idea about other sources. Sometimes turning the computer of and on sorts it.
NEWER UPDATE – this has been fixed
I seem to remember, a reboot was also needed to get the Pi 4 to swap from 3.5mm jack to Bluetooth.
The problem is worse with the Pi 400, as it has no 3.5mm audio jack – I assume audio-over-HDMI is still there.
It is almost as though the SoC in the 4 and 400 has a bit that the software has no way to toggle (said the great detective).
I have asked Farnell for help.
