The Raspberry Pi 4 has been announced, and on paper, it’s impressive — especially when you that the starting price has stayed the same at $35. While specs won’t tell you the whole story, the Raspberry Pi 4’s numbers seem to put it on par with a laptop or smartphone that you (or your parents) may still have and may even still be using.
Here are the Raspberry Pi 4’s specs, side-by-side with those of the HP Envy 13 laptop (from 2009) and the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone (from 2013/2014). The Pi’s numbers are either at least as good as, if not better than those of the laptop and smartphone:
| 2009-era Laptop (HP Envy 13) |
2014-era Smartphone (Samsung Galaxy S4) |
2019 Raspberry Pi | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Processors | 1.6 GHz dual-core CPU (Intel Core 2 Duo SU9600) and DirectX 10-capable 16-core GPU (ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330) |
1.6 GHz quad-core CPU (ARM Cortex-A15) and DirectX 9_3-capable 3-core GPU (PowerVR SGX544) |
1.5GHz quad-core CPU (ARM Cortex-A72) |
| Active Memory | 2GB DDR2 RAM | 2GB LPDDR3 RAM | 1GB, 2GB, or 4GB LPDDR4 RAM |
| Storage | 250GB 4500 RPM hard drive | 16, 32 or 64GB solid state storage | MicroSD cards, which start at 16GB and go as high as 512GB |
| Display | 1600 * 900 | 1080 * 1920 | 4K (3840 * 2160) |
| Networking |
|
|
|
| Powerful enough to run a proper and complete port of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City? | Yes | Yes |
This is just me speculating, but: Probably. |
It may be an “Internet of Things” device in form and price, but in terms of what it can do, it’s a desktop computer.
The 1GB model sells for $35, the 2GB for $45, and the 4GB for $55, and for a little more money, you can get it in kit packages that include a case, keyboard, mouse, and more.
More reading
- Raspberry Pi Blog: Raspberry Pi 4 on sale now from $35
- TechCrunch: The Raspberry Pi Foundation unveils the Raspberry Pi 4
- TechRepublic: Raspberry Pi 4: This thing is a PC, says board’s creator Eben Upton. This article doesn’t compare PC specs to the Raspberry Pi 4’s specs, but extra context like this is why you’re here at Global Nerdy, right?
- Ars Technica: The Raspberry Pi 4 launch site runs on a Pi 4 cluster. That’s right — the launch site is powered by 18 Raspberry Pi 4 devices!
One reply on “Raspberry Pi 4: Powerful as a 2009 laptop or a 2014 smartphone — all for $35!”
ARM indicates that the Cortex-A72 should give a 3.5x performance improvement over the Cortex-A15:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/9184/arm-reveals-cortex-a72-architecture-details
That’s with the A72 at 2.2 GHz, and the A15 at 1.6 GHz, so at equivalent clock speed, more like a 2.5x performance improvement? Pretty decent, considering the A72 is 4 years newer.