Advertised as a “complete desktop computer”, the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B offers 3x the processing power and 4x the multimedia performance of the previous generation. The new and improved Raspberry Pi 4 model uses a Broadcom BCM2711 SoC (a quad-core Cortex-A72 processor running at 1.5GHz), which is a significant upgrade from its predecessor, Raspberry Pi 3 that features Broadcom BCM2837 SoC (4× ARM Cortex-A53 running at 1.2GHz). Raspberry Pi 4 has two micro-HDMI ports, albeit in a micro HDMI format. However, both can support a 4K display running at 60fps, or two 4K displays running at 30fps. It also supports H.265 hardware video decoding, H.264 up to 1080p60 decode, 1080p30 up to encode, with support for OpenGL ES, 3.0 graphics output. It has a gigabit Ethernet port and supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0 for wireless connectivity. It also features two USB 2.0 Type-A ports and two USB 3.0 Type-A ports. “This is basically what we’ve been working towards for the entire history of Raspberry Pi: a credible alternative to a “regular” PC. The vision behind Raspberry Pi 4 is to make a rich multimedia PC experience accessible to everyone. By offering a ‘just right’ level of performance for most users, we’ve been able to do this at roughly a tenth the cost of a traditional desktop PC,” said Eben Upton, founder of the Raspberry Pi Foundation and chief executive of the Foundation’s engineering arm. “We can now address a much bigger fraction of the PC market. There will still be some people, like hard-core gamers, for whom this will not be an acceptable PC. But for the things most people want to do, editing documents, searching the web, watching a few videos, this will be perfectly fine,” he added.
The product is launching today through authorized Raspberry Pi retailers. The base model of the Raspberry Pi 4 comes with 1GB of RAM and costs $35. However, it is also available in 2GB and 4GB of RAM configurations costing $45 and $55 respectively. The Raspberry Pi 4 is expected to remain in production until at least January 2026.
