Raspberry Pi 500 review: the Pi 5's power in a convenient keyboard form factor with awesome thermal performance, but lacks NVMe and no camera or display ports
Such thoughtful design! 👏 — (also note the new Raspberry Pi 500) — https://www.raspberrypi.com/ ... [image] X: Jeff Geerling / @geerlingguy : This picture, unfortunately, was taken *after* I had attempted to solder on my own M.2 socket (and failed miserably, lol). The #Pi500 includes pads for both an M.2 socket and PoE support, but alas, they are unpopulated. [image] Jeff Geerling / @geerlingguy : Raspberry Pi also launched a Pi Monitor, it's a 15.6" IPS LCD, with a nifty kickstand that adjusts to any angle, with nail-hanger hooks on it, plus VESA mounting screw holes. I set up a #Pi500 dev workstation with two of them: [image] @pimoroni : Meet Raspberry Pi 500! All the power of Raspberry Pi 5 in a neat and compact package: https://shop.pimoroni.com/... Jeff Geerling / @geerlingguy : The Raspberry Pi 500 launches today, for $90. Raspberry Pi sent one to test, and of course the first thing I did was rip the shell apart to see if it had an M.2 slot inside... #Pi500 🧵 [image] @raspberry_pi : Introducing Raspberry Pi 500 and the Raspberry Pi Monitor — your complete Raspberry Pi desktop setup. Raspberry Pi 500 puts the power of Raspberry Pi 5 into a high-quality keyboard for the ultimate fast, powerful, compact PC experience. Available from $90. The Raspberry Pi [image] Forums: Hacker News : Raspberry Pi 500 Review: The keyboard is the computer, again r/raspberry_pi : Raspberry Pi 500 and Raspberry Pi Monitor on sale now
Context & Ripple Effects
Raspberry Pi is extending the keyboard-computer format it established with the Raspberry Pi 400 launch, now pairing it with the newer Pi 5 platform rather than positioning the board only as a standalone component.
The trade-off is clearer against the Pi 5's two 4K HDMI outputs: the integrated design prioritizes a compact, cooled desktop appliance over the expansion and I/O flexibility associated with the underlying board. The companion monitor makes that desktop use case more complete.
First-order effects
- Buyers get a keyboard-integrated Pi 5 system with strong thermal performance, but lose built-in NVMe, camera, and display connectivity; the unpopulated M.2 and PoE pads do not provide those functions out of the box.
- Raspberry Pi can sell the Pi 500 alongside its new monitor as a more self-contained desktop setup, while users needing specialized I/O or storage must choose different hardware or work around the omissions.
Second-order effects
- The product separates Raspberry Pi's range more sharply: keyboard-desktop buyers can favor the Pi 500, while expansion-oriented users have a stronger reason to retain a standard Pi 5 or a Compute Module 5 configuration.
- Peripheral and accessory demand shifts toward external storage and display setups, but the absent ports constrain the kinds of camera- and multi-display projects that can use the keyboard model directly.
Third-order effects
- If Raspberry Pi continues packaging its faster boards into finished desktop devices, its portfolio will increasingly divide between approachable end-user systems and modular products for projects that require exposed I/O.
- The unpopulated pads illustrate a durable design tension: preserving a common board design can leave visible upgrade potential, but product segmentation still depends on which interfaces are actually shipped.
The trend: Single-board-computer vendors are turning higher-performance boards into more complete consumer devices while reserving expansion flexibility for modular tiers.