These 4 Killer Features Are Why I’m Upgrading to the Raspberry Pi 500

The Raspberry Pi 500 keyboard computer builds significantly on the legacy of the Raspberry Pi 400 – and has a host of standout features that make it absolutely worth buying.

1. A much more powerful Processor

As the Raspberry Pi 400The Raspberry Pi 500 is inspired by a similarly named single-board computer, the Raspberry Pi 5. The PI 500 is essentially a Raspberry Pi 5 in a keyboard form factor, which means it has the same 2.4GHz quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A76 processor and RP1 I/O controller.

Based on the speed of the Raspberry Pi 5, the Raspberry Pi 500 offers two to three times the speed of the Pi 400 keyboard computer and will outperform the older PC at any computing task. This is good news for users interested in game emulation, browsing/streaming, and running heavy programming IDEs (integrated development environments) such as Visual Studio Code on a Raspberry Pi.

If you want an even faster speed, you can overclock the Raspberry Pi 500, but you will run into thermal throttling at some point (around 2.9GHz to 3.0GHz).

2. 8GB of RAM for demanding applications

The onboard memory on the Raspberry Pi 500 has also received a considerable upgrade to 8GB, up from 4GB in the previous keyboard computer. More RAM means you can run more applications and processes simultaneously. So, you can open more tabs in the Chromium browser and have more apps running in the background without worrying about RAM usage.

In addition, the Raspberry Pi 500 uses LPDDR4x memory, which offers twice the speed (at lower voltage) of the LPDDR4 chip of the Pi 400. Combined with a faster SD card read/write speed, the Raspberry Pi 500 offers an experience smoother and more modern compared to the Raspberry Pi 400.

3. Faster USB Ports

The Raspberry Pi 500 retains the dual USB 3.0 ports and single USB 2.0 port from the Pi 400. Like the Pi 4, the USB 3.0 ports on the Pi 400 share a maximum bandwidth of 5Gbps; that is, you get slower speeds when both ports are transferring data at the same time.

Thanks to the RP1 1/O controller, the two USB 3.0 ports on the Raspberry Pi 500 now offer more bandwidth, up to 5 Gbps per port. You can enjoy faster data transfers when copying large files or with external SSDs.

4. No need for external cooling

The Raspberry Pi 5 is known for being the only entry in the single computer series to require cooling for most uses. The Raspberry Pi 500 solves this by including the heatsink in the keyboard. The passive heat spreader covers the surface of the printed circuit board and prevents any overheating/thermal throttling problems during normal operation. This eliminates the need for an active cooling fan or an external heatsink – which makes sense with the design of the Raspberry Pi 500.

The Raspberry Pi 500 is not perfect

My biggest gripe with the Raspberry Pi 500 – also noted by most reviewers – is the missing M.2 slot. The most impressive addition to the Raspberry Pi 5 of course was the PCIe Gen 2 connector, which brought NVMe drives and AI Accelerators to the Raspberry Pi ecosystem. Therefore, it is disappointing that there is no way to connect SSD M.2 to the Raspberry Pi 500, especially since there is an unsoldered M.2 socket on the board.

Also, I would have preferred a keyboard with improved tactile feedback. The cheap membrane keyboard on the Raspberry Pi 400 is the only major drawback to a otherwise a large laptop. However, I understand that there is a certain price point to be met.

More superficially, I’m partial to the red and white color scheme of the Pi 400 and would like to keep that for the Pi 500 (or at least for a later variant).

The Raspberry Pi 500 is slightly more expensive than the Pi 400, at $90 for the keyboard (and a 32GB SD card) and $120 for the desktop kit with a mouse, official power supply, display cable and a beginner’s guide .

Despite its flaws, the Raspberry Pi 500 is a great keyboard computer with a lot of computing power for its size and price. It might not find use in many electronics projects, but it’s perfect for educational purposes and general computing on the go.