Powering the IoT: The Highest-Performance Raspberry Pi 4 Is Released

Powering the IoT: The Highest-Performance Raspberry Pi 4 Is Released

The Raspberry Pi has gained unprecedentedly wide adoption in the world of the Internet of Things thanks to its low cost (roughly just over 200 RMB), strong performance (an 8-core processor, generous memory, and multiple interfaces), and low power consumption, along with support for a fully open-source Linux embedded system. As the hardware has continued to evolve, each new generation of Raspberry Pi has earned praise by carrying on the excellent tradition of “more features without a higher price.” After getting my hands on the Raspberry Pi 3 B+, I was repeatedly impressed by its powerful performance. But as hardware in mainstream devices keeps improving, some shortcomings of the Raspberry Pi 3 have continued to draw criticism: even after upgrades, it still had only 1GB of DDR3 memory, no built-in storage at all (relying entirely on a TF card), and no USB 3 support, among other limitations. So ever since the Raspberry Pi 3 came out, calls for an upgraded version have been constant.

After much anticipation, the Raspberry Pi Foundation officially announced the Raspberry Pi 4 today, bringing major performance improvements across the board. The new Raspberry Pi 4 starts at £34. So what exactly has been upgraded at this price point, and does it finally meet mainstream expectations?

According to the official information, the most notable upgrade in the Raspberry Pi 4 is its memory. Although the processor clock speed has increased from 1.2GHz to 1.5GHz, it still uses the BCM2837, so that improvement alone is relatively modest. By contrast, the memory now comes in 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB versions, and has been upgraded to mainstream DDR4. This is truly welcome news: developers no longer have to scrape together every last bit of memory just to keep their projects running.

Beyond these headline features, the Raspberry Pi 4’s main upgrades also include Bluetooth 5.0 with low-energy support, an additional video output port with 4K support, two USB 3.0 ports among its four USB ports, gigabit Ethernet, dual-band wireless networking, and a USB-C power connector. As far as I’m concerned, aside from still lacking built-in storage, it’s almost impossible to complain. What do you think?

The detailed specifications from the official materials are as follows: