RASPBERRY PI WHICH BOARD IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

THE POPULAR HOBBYIST BOARD COMES IN MANY VARIANTS. NIK RAWLINSON DEMYSTIFIES THE LINEUP

- NIK RAWLINSON

The Raspberry Pi is the best-selling British personal computer of all time. Launched in 2012, it surpassed the ZX Spectrum's lifetime sales in just three years, and it's remained on an upward trajectory ever since.

The platform has also expanded considerably. There are now five major generations of the Raspberry Pi, plus compact Zero variants and the ultra-lightweight Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller board - not to mentiona wide range of peripherals, including keyboards, mice, cameras, touch displays and much more.

While it's great to have so many options, it can be also be a bit daunting.

If you're new to the world of Raspberry Pi, you could be forgiven for not knowing where to start. Do you need a full-sized board? How much processor power do you need, and how much RAM? And how can you get the right connectors for your needs?

In general, if you're looking for a general-purpose hobbyist computer then a full-sized board is likely to be your best bet, while the Zero range serves admirably for basic Python projects, and the Pico is a very cheap and simple platform for embedded roles. But it's not always clear-cut; everything depends on what you want to build and how you plan on using your board in the long term. Here's our guide to the most popular Raspberry Pi models, to help you tell them apart and pick the right one.

RASPBERRY PI 5

Launched in September 2023, the Raspberry Pi 5 is the latest, most powerful and versatile Raspberry Pi model. That might not be immediately obvious from looking at it, though: it has broadly the same appearance as its predecessors, and sports the standard Raspberry Pi 40-pin GPIO connector, used to interface with peripherals and sensors.