Electronics Weekly has been trying out a Raspberry Pi 400 for a few days, and can report that it really is a desktop replacement for writing documents, editing photos and general web use.

Hands on Raspberry Pi 400 - your favourite little computer inside a keyboard

Yes, that really is the whole computer

The computer is essentially a Raspberry Pi 4 built inside a keyboard – looking very almost identical to the neat official Raspberry Pi keyboard.

It comes with 4Gbyte of RAM and the processor running at 1.8GHz – rather than the 1.5GHz of Raspberry Pi 4, and retains twin HDMI outputs to drive two 4K displays (spec table below)

Raspberry-Pi-400-RearAccording to Raspberry Pi Trading: “Raspberry Pi 400 is ideal for surfing the web, creating and editing documents, watching videos, and learning to program using the Raspberry Pi OS desktop environment.”

Not wanting to lever apart the sample that Farnell kindly sent to de-centralised Electronics Weekly, I can only speculate that there is a whole new PCB inside the keyboard, with good heatsinking as I am looking at a CPU temperature of only 32°C as I type these words on it (and 38°C an hour later).

And what can I say except: It works, well (although see audio comment at the bottom).

The Pi 4 was the first Pi powerful enough to be a proper desktop replacement ( I use one for that), and the Pi 400 repackages that power into a lovely format for on-desk use.

What it does well is reduce the total number of cables trailing around the Pi, while still offering the standard 40 pin IO expansion port (along the back edge, orientated so that a HAT will stick up on edge with you looking at its underside).

That said, there is a minor trailing cable issue – when using a Raspberry Pi 4, the Pi can be tucked at the back of the desk leaving only two skinny cables trailing to the front – keyboard and mouse. This reduces to one skinny cable when using the Official Keyboard, as the Official Mouse plugs into one of the three USB 2 ports of the hub built into the keyboard through a short neat cable.

With Raspberry Pi 400, the mouse still plugs into one of the three USB ports on the rear edge (1x USB 2, 2x USB 3), leaving the power lead and HDMI cable trailing across the desk – still only two cables, but the HDMI cable is thicker and stiffer than a keyboard cable, and that becomes a pair of HDMI cables when using the dual display capability.

Raspberry-Pi-400Along the back edge, total connector count is:

• 40 pin IO
• microSD Card for Raspberry Pi OS
• micro HDMI
• micro HDMI
• USB C power input
• USB 3 for general use
• USB 3 for general use
• USB 2 for general use
• Ethernet
• Physical anchor hole

Notice, that there is no 3.5mm connector for audio – so headphone and speakers will have to be Bluetooth, or through HDMI via an HDMI (not DVI) monitor equipped with speakers or an 3.5mm audio output.

Multiple keyboard styles will supported by variants of Raspberry P 400:

• UK
• US
• German
• French
• Italian
• Spanish

And the power adaptor comes in various forms for various nations.

Just like the Official Keyboard, the Pi 400 keyboard has a nice action – light and with a pleasant amount of travel.