Raspberry Pi 400
Best value desktop PC
Pros
- Simple all-in-one computer
- Handles cooling well
- GPIO port
Cons
- No camera or display interface
The Raspberry Pi 400 may look like a keyboard, but remarkably, it actually has a computer built inside its tiny frame. Simply plug it into a power source and monitor, and you’re good to go.
You can pick it up in two configurations; a base model which is £60 and comes with the computer only, or spend an extra £35, and you get a mouse, power supply, HDMI cable, 16GB microSD card preloaded with Raspbian, and a ‘getting started’ book. Whichever way you cut it, the Pi 400 offers some amazing value for money.
This dinky desktop PC runs on Raspberry Pi OS rather than Windows, but lets you do all the basics such as surfing the web and catching up on your emails. Our testing shows that the Pi 400 isn’t particularly powerful, which is no surprise given it uses an Arm chip and 4GB of RAM. But again, you should be fine as long as you stick to simple workloads.
The device features ports for Gigabit Ethernet, USB-A, USB-C, HDMI and a microSD card slot, which offers some great connectivity for casual computing and basic workloads. Even in 2023, gigabit ethernet on more of an affordable machine is a lovely port to have. We also found the keyboard to be pretty good, although arguably doesn’t have good enough feedback for typing out large documents on a daily basis.
The main benefit of the Raspberry Pi 400 is undoubtedly the affordable cost, making it one of the best value all-in-one computers on the market and a great choice for children hoping to learn how to code.
Reviewer: David Ludlow
Full Review: Raspberry Pi 400 Review
