Raspberry Pi 500+

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has released a new variant of their keyboard series with the addition of the Raspberry Pi 500+.

The Raspberry Pi 500+ introduces several improvements over its predecessor, but these changes come with a pretty hefty price increase. Whether this increase is worth it highly depends on how you plan on using your Pi.

At its core, the 500+ still features the same processor and I/O controller as the rest of the Raspberry Pi 5 lineup. So if you are after more performance, you won’t find that with this new variant. What you will be finding, however, is a product that is much more complete right out of the box.

Like the rest of the keyboard variants, these are really best for those who want a desktop experience. If you are trying to embed your device, it is recommended that you stick with the main Raspberry Pi 5 or the Zero series.

One of the biggest changes introduced by this new variant is that the Raspberry Pi has been integrated into a mechanical keyboard. In particular this keyboard utilizes the great Gateron KS-33 Blue low-profile switches. If you don’t like the included keycaps, don’t worry; you can swap them out with your own. The foundation has made this process easier by including a key cap puller.

This new keyboard significantly improves one of the biggest shortcomings of the keyboard series of Pis. The original variant could feel very spongy to type on and very unresponsive. This move to a mechanical keyboard makes everything feel significantly nicer and actually feel like a keyboard you could use every day.

On top of this, the keyboard actually features RGB lighting, which gives it an additional, more premium feel. Of course, if you aren’t a fan of RGB lighting, the Raspberry Pi 500+ does enable you to disable this functionality. However, if you ever type in poor light, you will definitely find this lighting to be quite beneficial.

The change to a mechanical keyboard isn’t the only change the Raspberry Pi 500+ introduces to the keyboard lineup. The next most prominent change is that the 500+ now features a built-in M.2 slot. While you can use this to install your own NVMe storage, this variant actually comes packed with a 256GB drive.

With the inclusion of an NVMe drive, you will now have a Raspberry Pi that is basically ready to go straight out of the box.

If you decide you want more storage, you will find a tool included with your 500+ that will make accessing the slot a bit easier.

The final major change introduced with this new Raspberry Pi 500+ is that the RAM has been doubled from 8GB to 16GB. The additional memory is something that, while not the most obvious change, is something that you will find ot be incredibly beneficial.

More RAM enables you to run more programs at once without running into any out-of-memory errors. This additional RAM can also be extremely useful for some applications that may not be particularly demanding on the processor but can consume a significant amount of RAM.

If you ever wanted to try out AI, on your Raspberry Pi you will also find the included RAM to make things a lot more usable, but still somewhat slow.

Conclusion

While the Raspberry Pi 500 Plus is one of the most comprehensive packages available, it still lacks a few key components. For example, you will still need to invest in a compatible power supply; in particular, you should get the official power supplies. Modern versions of the Pi aren’t as friendly to third-party adaptors.

Outside of missing a power supply, the Raspberry Pi 500 Plus is a relatively good package. You get a decent mechanical keyboard, packed with the full power of the Raspberry Pi 5 processor, a 256GB hard drive, and 16GB of RAM.

If you decide to purchase a Pi 500 Plus, we highly recommend taking some time to explore some of our many Raspberry Pi projects. The amount you can do with such a small device is impressive.