CutiePi tablet gets a Raspberry Pi CM4 upgrade

CutiePi tablet was launched on Kickstarter last year with a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3+ Lite, an open-source hardware carrier board, and an 8-inch multi-touch display with 1280×800 resolution.

Shipping to backers is about to start, but the company has already started working on a new version of the CutiePi Tablet with the Raspberry Pi CM4 module released last October. This will enable greater performance and more memory with the tablet shipping with a 2GB RAM CM4 module by default.

CutiePi CM4 tablet preliminary specifications:

SoM – Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 Lite with Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 processor @ 1.5 GHz, 2GB RAM
Storage – MicroSD card slot
Display – 8-inch 5-point multi-touch IPS LCD with 1280×800 resolution
Video Output – Micro HDMI
Audio – 2W 8Ohm speaker, audio amplifier, built-in microphone
Camera – 5MP front-facing camera (OV5647)
Connectivity – Dual-band 802.11 b/g/n/ac WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0
USB – 1x USB type-A port, 1x USB OTG port
~~Expansion – 6x GPIO pins~~
Sensor – Gyroscope
Misc – Handle that doubles as a stand, sleep/wake button
Battery – 5,000 mAh Li-Po battery
Power Supply – 5V via USB Type-C port; STM32 MCU handles power management and battery level monitoring
Dimensions – 206 x 134 x 14 mm
OSHWA Certification – JP000005 (Note that was for v1.2 carrier board for CM3+ Lite, but the same certification may be used for V2.1 carrier board for CM4?)

There are a few other changes compared to the original CutiePi board, as the Raspberry Pi CM4 tablet adds a microphone, gets WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, and a USB OTG port for data and charging. The 6-pin GPIO connector is however gone, making place to the microphone instead.

The new carrier board’s design files (Cadence OrCAD/Allegro) can be found on Github, and the tablet will run Raspberry Pi OS with CutiePi shell optimized for tablet use. The video below shows the shell on Raspberry PI CM3+ Lite-powered CutiePi.

This time around, the company does not apparently plan to do a Kickstarter campaign but instead is taking pre-orders directly from its own website. The pre-order price is $199.00 with shipping scheduled for July 2021. Afterward, the price will be hiked to $229.

Via Hacker News

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.