Now get a taste of Raspberry Pi for just $5

Raspberry Pi is known for its small and cheap computers and with the Raspberry Pi Zero, the company has made its smallest and cheapest computer yet. The device is about the size of the a business card and costs $5, which is approximately Rs. 330. So what do you get for $5? Well, the Raspberry Pi Zero is powered by a Broadcom BCM2835 processor with an ARM11 core that is clocked at 1GHz and 512MB of LPDDR2 RAM. It also has a microSD card slot for storage and a mini-HDMI port as well. There are micro-USB sockets for data and power as well as a general purpose I/O pin. Raspberry Pi Zero runs Raspbian OS and on its blog, the company claims that the device is powerful enough to support a number of applications, including Minecraft. That is pretty impressive considering that Minecraft: Pocket Edition on the Google Play Store costs more than Raspberry Pi Zero itself. 

Back in February in year, the company announced Raspberry Pi 2. The device came with a 900MHz quad-core processor which could be overclocked and 1GB of RAM. It is also equipped with four USB ports, a microSD card, HDMI port and an ethernet port as well. The device was launched at a price of $35, which is about Rs. 2,300. 

Many companies are launching their own take on the mini computer. A few weeks ago, Google and Asus launched the Chromebit, a Chrome OS based PC-on-a-stick. The device weighs just 75 grams and can be plugged into an HDMI port on a display. It is powered by a Rockchip processor with 2GB RAM and has 16GB of onboard storage. It also comes with a USB port to plug in wired peripherals. The device is priced at $85 which is about Rs. 5,700. Microsoft has a completely different take on the category with Continuum. It is a feature that lets a Windows 10 powered smartphone like the Lumia 950, 950XL and the Acer Liquid Jade Primo be connected to their displays via a dock and turn it into a complete desktop.

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Shrey Pacheco

Writer, gamer, and hater of public transport. View Full Profile