The best mini PCs take up less desk space, yet they still offer enough power and performance to serve your needs. Raspberry Pi computers aren’t typically known for their processing power, but they serve as an affordable way to create a personal computer, home automation system, streaming media player, or gaming system with just a little bit of research and understanding of how the Pi system functions. Raspberry Pi Kit comes with Keyboard and Hub. Buy online Raspberry Pi 4 Desktop Kit with warranty assurance and shipping all over India.
The most recent iteration of the Raspberry Pi, the Raspberry Pi 400, has better processing and the Pi computer built right into a keyboard. This allows for an even more compact personal computer, and the Pi 400 kit even includes a microSD card with the OS preloaded. To see how this new Pi compares to previous generation models and other mini PCs, I tested it for a week.
Here’s the full review of the Raspberry Pi 400.
Design – A PC inside of a keyboard
Previous versions of the Raspberry Pi didn’t exactly come across as accessible to the typical PC user who spends most of their time surfing the web. The older Raspberry Pi models look like a mini motherboard with ports and other components attached. The Raspberry Pi 400 is completely different, as the board is housed inside a keyboard for easier setup and use. It’s reminiscent of those all-in-one PC keyboards from the 80s.
The Pi 400 just includes the keyboard PC, but if you go with the Pi 400 kit, it includes a USB mouse, a power supply, a mini HDMI to HDMI cable, a guide on how to use the Pi, and most importantly, a microSD card with the Raspberry Pi OS (formerly Rasbian) pre-installed. The kit also provides a full-sized SD card adapter for transferring and loading software from your main computer. The PC-in-a-keyboard design makes the Pi 400 Kit less like a computer you have to build, and more like a PC you can start using right out of the box. It also means the Pi can compete with other, more expensive mini PCs.
The Pi keyboard is small, but it’s still usable. It’s about the size of a typical Bluetooth keyboard that you’d buy for a tablet, as it measures about 11 inches wide and just under 5 inches in depth. The red and white design doesn’t really match most monitors, but it still looks sleek. And, the included mouse goes well with the keyboard, with the same color scheme.
On the back of the Pi 400, you’ll find a slot for the microSD card, as well as all of the ports. It has two micro HDMI slots, three USB slots (two 3.0 and one 2.0), a horizontal 40-pin GPIO header, and the port for the power supply. The power button is on the keyboard itself – press F10 to power on the Pi, and press Fn + F10 to power it off.
Setup Process – Easier than previous Pi models
The Raspberry Pi 400 is still… well, a Raspberry Pi. It isn’t a traditional PC in the sense that it doesn’t have full capabilities like a typical laptop, desktop computer, or even mini computer. The Pi is just a computer—it doesn’t even have an operating system unless you add one (fortunately, this Pi includes the OS with the kit). Even when you add the OS, the Pi has a relatively barebones interface. The whole purpose of a Raspberry Pi is to be whatever you want it to be—a personal computer, a smart home controller, a gaming system, or whatever else you can think of.
The keyboard made setup easier, as did the additional accessories in the kit. I just had to put the microSD card in the keyboard’s slot, connect the mouse and power supply, connect the keyboard to a monitor, and power on the Pi. After some updates, I was up and running.
The whole purpose of a Raspberry Pi is to be whatever you want it to be—a personal computer, a smart home controller, a gaming system, or whatever else you can think of.
Projects – Keyboard helps in some ways, hinders in others
One great thing about Raspberry Pi is that there’s a community of users to help you out with project ideas, to share terminal commands, and to help with troubleshooting. Pi computers are great for makers, but once I really started experimenting with the Pi 400, I realized the keyboard is beneficial in some areas, but it’s limiting in others.
You can create a streaming system or RetroPie Gaming System pretty easily with the Pi 400, and you don’t even need to attach a keyboard when you need to add content or perform updates. However, the keyboard form factor prevents you from putting the Pi inside of a mini Nintendo-style case like you can with the Pi 3.
It would be difficult to make anything outdoors with a keyboard, and it would be tough to use the Pi as a security camera when it’s inside of a keyboard. You can remove the Pi from the keyboard if you really want to, but that would kind of defeat the purpose of going with the 400 model. Instead of removing the board, you could just opt for a Pi 4, although it has a lower CPU clock (1.5 Ghz).
