The new Raspberry Pi 4 has up to 4GB RAM and can support dual 4K displays

The Raspberry Pi has built quite a reputation for itself. Especially among DIY enthusiasts. Having said that, many have been waiting for the Raspberry Pi Foundation to launch a Raspberry Pi that could potentially replace a desktop, at least, for basic day-to-day usage scenarios. Maybe some more RAM, maybe some more ports, you know the usual suspects. Well what do you know, the newly launched Raspberry Pi 4 does just that and more – and yet somehow, it is still very affordable like all its previous avatars. 

The Raspberry Pi may have been part of many DIY projects over the years, but this is the first time, you could use it as a makeshift desktop PC, without any significant compromises. Not only does it come with more RAM, it also packs a faster CPU and faster graphics, dual-band Wi-Fi and two micro HDMI ports that can support two 4K displays running at 30fps or a single 4K monitor at 60fps – that’s in addition to two USB 3 ports. 

More specifically, the Raspberry Pi 4 is powered by a 1.5GHz quad-core Broadcom CPU paired with a VideoCore VI GPU clocked at 500MHz and up to 4GB of RAM. Connectivity options include USB Type-C port for power, two Micro HDMI ports, two USB 3 ports and two USB 2 ports, Gigabit Ethernet port, Bluetooth 5.0 and Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi. There’s also microSD storage card on-board the Raspberry Pi 4. Also, “and as always, we've kept all our software backwards-compatible, so what you create on a Raspberry Pi 4 will work on any older models you own too,” the Raspberry Pi Foundation notes about the Raspberry 4. 

Design-wise - by form factor standards - it looks identical to the Raspberry Pi 3 B+ but there’s a major re-design from the inside which means last-generation cases won’t work on this one.   

The Raspberry Pi 4 is available with 1GB RAM, 2GB RAM or 4GB RAM configuration. While the 1GB RAM base model of the Raspberry Pi 4 has been launched at $35 (roughly Rs 2,500), the 2GB and 4GB RAM models have been launched at $45 (roughly Rs 3,100) and $55 (roughly Rs 3,800) respectively.