The Raspberry Pi 500+ is an upgrade to the Raspberry Pi 500 keyboard PC, getting a mechanical keyboard with RGB LED lighting, a 256GB NVMe SSD, and 16GB LPDDR4x memory.
Apart from that, the rest of the ports and features are exactly the same for the new “Plus” model: two 4K-capable micro HDMI ports, Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0, three USB ports, a microSD card slot, and a 40-pin GPIO header.
Raspberry Pi 500+ specifications:
- SoC – Broadcom BCM2712
- CPU – Quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A76 processor @ 2.4GHz
- GPU – VideoCore VII GPU with support for OpenGL ES 3.1 graphics, Vulkan 1.2
- VPU – 4Kp60 HEVC decoder
- System Memory – 16GB LPDDR4X-4267 SDRAM
- Storage
- 256 GB NVMe SSD preloaded with Raspberry Pi OS; connected to M.2 PCIe 2280 socket
- MicroSD card slot
- Video Output – 2x micro HDMI ports up to 4Kp60
- Networking
- Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port
- Dual-band 802.11b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0
- USB
- 2x USB 3.0 ports
- 1x USB 2.0 ports
- User input – 84-, 85-, or 88-key mechanical keyboard, depending on layout. Gateron Blue KS-33 low-profile switches
- Expansion – 40-pin GPIO header accessible from the outside
- Misc
- Power Button on the keyboard
- RGB LED lighting
- Power Supply – 5V DC via USB-C connector
- Dimensions – 312 x 123.06 x 35.76 mm
- Temperature Range – 0 to 50°C
- Lifetime – In production until at least January 2030
The change that will impact the price and user experience the most is probably the mechanical keyboard with replaceable keycaps and programmable RGB lighting. The 16GB RAM and 256GB NVMe SSD will also improve performance, especially when multitasking, but I wouldn’t expect any major improvements in benchmarks, except storage benchmarks.
Few will be surprised to find out a new Raspberry Pi keyboard PC launched with an NVMe SSD, because a teardown of the Raspberry Pi 500 already reveals a footprint for an M.2 PCIe socket compatible with 2230, 2242, 2260, and 2280 modules.
On the software side of things, the keyboard still runs Raspberry Pi OS, but benefits from two new packages for keyboard configuration and firmware, which should be in the latest Pi OS image, but can also be installed as follows:
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sudo apt install rpi-keyboard-config sudo apt install rpi-keyboard-fw-update |
Instructions on replacing the SSD, swapping out the default keycaps, and configuring the keyboard and RGB lighting can be found on the relevant documentation page.
The Raspberry Pi 500+ is by far the most expensive product from the company, even beating the $120 Raspberry Pi 5 16GB SBC, as it sells for $200, and a full kit with power supply, a mouse, a micro HDMI to HDMI cable, and other accessories goes for $220. Raspberry Pi sent us an early sample for review, but we are on the road and will only be able to check it out sometime in November.
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.
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