How I use the Raspberry Pi 400 as the perfect laptop
The Raspberry Pi 400 is a fully functional computer in a case with a keyboard. Although it’s not a laptop—there’s no display, touchpad, or built-in battery—it takes up as much space as a Logitech keyboard and offers enough power for most computing tasks.
The Raspberry Pi 400 is the ultimate portable computer
The Raspberry Pi 400, released in November 2020, followed the Raspberry Pi 4B single-board computer released a year earlier. It uses the same Broadcom BCM2711 chip with a quad-core Cortex-A72 CPU and 4GB of memory, but is contained in a membrane keyboard housing with slightly improved thermal treatment, a higher default clock speed and a slightly simplified setup process. Although it’s been a few years since we reviewed the Raspberry Pi 400, it still holds up as a great piece of kit.
The Raspberry Pi 400 is more portable than a regular laptop and easier to use than the Raspberry Pi 4B. It’s also extremely affordable, at $70 for the keyboard alone and $100 for a “PC kit” that includes a Raspberry Pi 400, mouse, power supply, micro-HDMI to HDMI cable, and other peripherals. The kit also includes a beginner’s guide, although it is aimed more at single-board computers in the series.
Hardware hackers will be pleased that the Pi 400 includes a 40-pin GPIO (General-Purpose Input/Output) header for connecting to sensors, add-on boards, displays and other electronic components.
I use the Raspberry Pi 400 for writing and editing when away from my main computer. Other tasks it handles fairly well include light surfing, watching videos (streaming HD content smoothly), testing Linux software, streaming audio, programming, and general retro gaming/emulation.
Personally, I’d like the typing experience to be a bit better, but I don’t think a full-fledged computer with a mechanical keyboard with n-key rollover, backlighting, and haptic feedback would be worth $70. The computer seems slower than I’m used to, which is the main factor preventing it from becoming my primary computer.
Raspberry Pi 400 setup
The Raspberry Pi 400 is “BYODKM (Bring Your Own Display, Keyboard, and Mouse)”, but if you buy the whole kit, you also get a keyboard and mouse. Setup is as easy as it gets and takes less than ten minutes.
Required accessories
Most of the accessories listed below are part of the kit, but you can purchase them separately.
- Power supply: The voltage rating of the official Raspberry Pi USB power supply (5.1V) is slightly higher than usual to account for drops, but a typical USB Type-C charger should work fine to power the Raspberry Pi.
- Storage: The Raspberry Pi 400 does not come with internal storage and an external storage device is needed for the operating system and files. The most common option is a microSD card with at least 8GB of storage space. However, a USB flash drive or Solid State Drive (SSD) will offer better read/write speed and overall performance.
- Display: While the Raspberry Pi supports headless use, a suitable dedicated HDMI display will make it easier for beginners. Equipped with two micro-HDMI ports, it can output 4K @ 30 Hz (fps) video to two monitors simultaneously.
- Sound output: While the Raspberry Pi 400 lacks built-in speakers and a 3.5mm headphone jack, it supports Bluetooth for wireless audio and peripherals.
- Mouse: There are three USB ports (2x USB 3.0 and 1x USB 2.0) for connecting mice, printers, USB drives or other wired peripherals.
- Internet: The Raspberry Pi 400 comes with built-in dual-band Wi-Fi and has a Gigabit Ethernet port for wired networks.
A Raspberry Pi 400 connected to a 10.1″ touchscreen and a 40000mAh power bank, all mounted in a sturdy Plano box, makes for a nice, portable device if you have the patience to set it up.
The Raspberry Pi operating system is familiar to Linux users
Die-hard Windows fans beware: the Raspberry Pi 400 is best suited to run a Linux operating system, such as the official Raspberry Pi operating system based on Debian Linux. The Raspberry Pi operating system is pre-installed on the microSD card included in the PC kit. It comes in 32-bit and 64-bit versions, with a Lite version for headless use.
Be sure to choose a high-endurance card with a storage capacity of at least 8 GB for the desktop version of the Raspberry Pi OS and 4 GB for the Lite version.
With the operating system installed on your chosen storage device, you can proceed to connect the Raspberry Pi 400 to a power source and boot the system.
When the Raspberry Pi OS starts up for the first time, a welcome wizard will appear to guide you through the initial setup. With a configured Raspberry Pi 400, you can navigate the desktop environment, transfer files to devices, download software, and enjoy a unique Linux experience.
A typical PC has ports that interact with the hardware in a predefined way. This differs from microcontroller boards (such as Arduino) which have pins to control and interact with the hardware through software. The Raspberry Pi bridges the gap, providing computing power and low-level hardware control via a 40-pin universal Input-Output header.
This header on the back of the keyboard makes the Pi 400 usable for physical computing and hardware work. Due to its location, you will need a 40-pin ribbon cable or adapter board to connect the electronic components to the header. It opens up a new world of computing and there are plenty of Raspberry Pi 400 projects for you to try.
Is the Raspberry Pi 400 good enough for everyday use?
The Raspberry Pi 400 is a great, ultra-portable device and probably the most affordable and affordable keyboard computer on the market. It’s ideal for light productivity tasks like word processing, graphic design, and editing and coding.
You could say that the Pi 400 isn’t a good replacement for a laptop because it performs so poorly when playing modern video games, editing videos, and streaming 1080p movies. But it’s a $70 computer sitting inside a membrane keyboard that can interface with low-level hardware.
It won’t be ideal for everyone, but for those who value portability and flexibility over performance, the Raspberry Pi 400 is the perfect personal computer. If you need to squeeze more power out of the device, the Raspberry Pi 400 can be overclocked.