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Raspberry Pi 500 Review: The keyboard is the computer, again

tomshardware.com

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Re: Raspberry Pi 500 Review: The keyboard is the computer, again

#51

Post by thiht »

esskay wrote: post #2

The word "Mediocre" comes to mind. Still using Micro HDMI, weirdly added unusable nvme ensuring people know its not the final product and if they want nvme they'll be having to pay for a replacement at some point down the line, plus increasing the price by around 30%. Feels very much like they've given up even pretending to try and understand what their customers want. The micro hdmi thing is just incredibly stupid,…

The word "Amazing" comes to my mind. My guess is you wildly overstimate how much people care about what you care about.

Re: Raspberry Pi 500 Review: The keyboard is the computer, again

#52

Post by sho_hn »

pdpi wrote: post #50
sho_hn wrote: post #41

Main oddities about the Pi 500, to me: - Designing a custom PCB for a more PC-like Pi, but then not merging the functionality of the official M.2 HAT despite plenty of available packaging space. Being able to just slot in an SSD would greatly expand the operating envelope of the product. - Sticking to Micro HDMI ports, again despite plenty of space & with everyone having standard HDMI cables already on hand, or surel…

The PCB has plenty of space for an M.2 slot (and, in fact, the PCB has pads for the connector and mounting holes, and is appropriately silk screened). The case design is just not designed for user serviceability, so having the slot would not be particularly useful. Jeff Geerling talks about this to some length in his video. Arguably, a non-user serviceable RPi is a bit of an odd choice, but the 400/500 are very much…

Sure, but I'd expect a little lid to access the M.2 slot in the case design. "It's not that kind of product", but maybe it should be: Higher capacity microSD cards are more expensive than NVMe alternatives, which are generally faster.

Re: Raspberry Pi 500 Review: The keyboard is the computer, again

#53

Post by whywhywhywhy »

Cumpiler69 wrote: post #35
0xEF wrote: post #19

A lot of scorn for this latest offering from Pi, but I think perspective is important here. No, most of us here do not have a use for the Pi 500 or it's display, but in part so the world where a lightweight low-consumption device can open some doors for connectivity and learning, this looks like a great solution. We tend to forget that not everyone on the planet has the same resources or needs we do.

>but in part so the world where a lightweight low-consumption device can open some doors for connectivity and learning, this looks like a great solution I hear this repeated over and over again in RPi threads, but nobody ever provides any proof of developing nations using RPis as affordable desktop computers apart from some PR articles every now and then involving partnerships and donations. This feels more of an opi…

It's because in reality it just doesn't work that way, the reality of what education really needs is ways to collaborate on documents and sync those back to teachers, ways to broadcast or watch recordings of lessons and most of all reliability and control. In reality these needs are better served by Chromebooks or Android tablets. The fact that the Pi is a real computer and runs the real version of Python on a real OS while meaning a lot to the "maker movement" and hoddyist hackers it means nothing in the reality of teaching a child how code works which would probably be done more successfully in a web app and a web based Python interpreter or the wider reality of using a computer for work outside of code (most of the curriculum).

Personally I wish the world was different and those things mattered but in the reality of education it doesn't and as time goes on it feels more and more like the education manifesto of Pi feels opposite of reality. Take this like from their release:

"during the early days of the COVID pandemic, when we worked with the Raspberry Pi Foundation to deliver thousands of Raspberry Pi 4 Desktop Kits and monitors to young people studying from home in the UK"

Like what use would that have been? The systems can't run Zoom, not powerful enough to handle Google Meet, they can't handle videostreams competently enough for a conference, they don't have a microphone, don't have a camera like how would this have helped anyone learn during COVID when the main requirement was video conferencing.

Re: Raspberry Pi 500 Review: The keyboard is the computer, again

#55

Post by aa-jv »

0xEF wrote: post #19

A lot of scorn for this latest offering from Pi, but I think perspective is important here. No, most of us here do not have a use for the Pi 500 or it's display, but in part so the world where a lightweight low-consumption device can open some doors for connectivity and learning, this looks like a great solution. We tend to forget that not everyone on the planet has the same resources or needs we do.

>We tend to forget that not everyone on the planet has the same resources or needs we do.

True, but we must also admit that misguided prejudices about resources can lead people to miss out on some very significant opportunities, as well.

By way of anecdotal example: I have a Pi 400 on my desk that I have used as a Linux development workstation for the past couple of years - in which it has performed superlatively, I might add. Its small and light and fast enough, yet works as a perfectly good performance metric/measurement for the projects I've thrown at it.

I used it to develop a scientific instrumentation and sampling product which has gone on to produce >$40million in revenue for the customer. I've used it to develop audio capture tools which have been integrated into the r&d facilities at a major audio hardware vendor.

So, even though it might seem 'underpowered' and 'un-sexy' for most such tasks, this particular embedded developer has been able to squeeze much value out of the limits of the hardware. Not only is it a good performance reference, but it has just enough oomph to allow me to avoid using cross-compiler techniques, and in that sense is a gateway device to so many very powerful embedded Linux development tools and methods.

Re: Raspberry Pi 500 Review: The keyboard is the computer, again

#57

Post by Citizen_Lame »

thiht wrote: post #47
0xEF wrote: post #19

A lot of scorn for this latest offering from Pi, but I think perspective is important here. No, most of us here do not have a use for the Pi 500 or it's display, but in part so the world where a lightweight low-consumption device can open some doors for connectivity and learning, this looks like a great solution. We tend to forget that not everyone on the planet has the same resources or needs we do.

I would have absolutely loved getting this as my first personal computer. The form factor is so cool, and even living in a first world country, that price tag is incredible. I really don't understand most of the comments, who cares if it just has micro hdmi ports, no nvme (whatever it is, I don't think I would care if I was 16, and I don't think I care today either) or whatever you think is missing? It costs less tha…

Absolutely agree, but like 20 years ago.

Re: Raspberry Pi 500 Review: The keyboard is the computer, again

#58

Post by whywhywhywhy »

elashri wrote: post #4

I understand that peoppe usually use medium PI boards for electronic projects. But other that, isn't it more cost effective and organized if you get minipc (something like N100 kit) for projects like backups machine or selfhosting projects?

N100 blows it out of the water for anything that just needs uptime, reliable and fast storage, speed and video encoding/decoding.

You can get an N100 16GB ram with 500GB M2 storage for about $200 range, which if you were to spec out a Pi with a case, cooling, proper storage, correct cables you'd be getting close or past that.

Obviously electronics or GPIO projects I'd still go with Pi.

Re: Raspberry Pi 500 Review: The keyboard is the computer, again

#59

Post by Ekaros »

sho_hn wrote: post #52
pdpi wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The PCB has plenty of space for an M.2 slot (and, in fact, the PCB has pads for the connector and mounting holes, and is appropriately silk screened). The case design is just not designed for user serviceability, so having the slot would not be particularly useful. Jeff Geerling talks about this to some length in his video. Arguably, a non-user serviceable RPi is a bit of an odd choice, but the 400/500 are very much…

Sure, but I'd expect a little lid to access the M.2 slot in the case design. "It's not that kind of product", but maybe it should be: Higher capacity microSD cards are more expensive than NVMe alternatives, which are generally faster.

Not to forget write cycles... Which can be real issue if you actually use system as desktop. In general NVME drives would likely be more reliable in long run.

I really would not enjoy storage being corrupted or dead on this kind of device.

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