Review of Raspberry Pi's new $15 Zero 2 W, featuring a 64-bit CPU, 512MB RAM, and WiFi 4: surprisingly powerful and ideal for emulation and automation projects
Context & Ripple Effects
The Zero line has been Raspberry Pi's price-floor experiment since the $5 original Pi Zero launched in 2015 with the same 512MB of RAM, followed by the Zero W adding WiFi and Bluetooth in 2017. The new $15 Zero 2 W is the first step up in compute rather than just connectivity: a 64-bit CPU on top of the existing wireless stack.
That matters because Wired UK's review finds the board 'surprisingly powerful' — enough for emulation and automation projects that previously required stepping up to pricier boards in the lineup.
First-order effects
- Hobbyists and educators building emulation or automation projects can now run 64-bit software on a $15 board, collapsing the capability gap between the Zero line and Raspberry Pi's more expensive models.
Second-order effects
- Other single-board computer makers face pricing pressure at the low end: matching 64-bit performance under $15 becomes the benchmark the Zero 2 W sets for the category.
Third-order effects
- If each Zero generation holds the sub-$20 price while raising capability, ultra-cheap boards keep absorbing workloads once reserved for full-size computers, entrenching Raspberry Pi as the default platform for embedded and educational computing.
The trend: Ultra-low-cost single-board computers are compounding capability gains at a fixed price point, with Raspberry Pi's Zero line turning hobbyist hardware into a genuine general-purpose computing tier.