Interesting new product released by the Raspberry Pi foundation.
Basically it is a Raspberry Pi 4 in a keyboard for $70. It is actually an improved Pi 4 running at higher clock rate and 4 GB edition.
Announcement Trailer
For $100 you can buy a complete kit that includes the Pi 400, Pi Mouse, Power Supply, SD Card, Micro-HDMI to HDMI cable.
I don't have one and likely don't have a need for a Pi 400, I do find it a good solution for people who only need to check email and surf the web. I've recommended iPads for many people in this situation but this fits the bill even better.
I do wish they went with some sort of SSD instead of using SD cards. SD Cards are notoriously unreliable when abruptly shutting down the computer, and this happens frequently with a PC. You can get 120GB SSD for around $20, it should have at least been an option. The performance difference with an SSD on a Pi over SD is huge.
The Raspberry Pi 4 is known to get really hot and the Raspberry Foundation dealt with that by including a large heat spreader inside of the keyboard.
One things I really like about the Pi 400 especially as a desktop computer is the placement of all I/O ports on the back of the device. There are some Raspberry Pi 4 cases that do this for you as well but they are really pricey coming in more than the Pi itself.
Performance
As I mentioned earlier, the Pi 400 is basically a Pi 4 4 GB model with higher clocks. This is confirmed with some early benchmarks of the device.
I think it was smart for the Raspberry Foundation to build this device around the 4 GB model, I frequently tell people the 2 GB is suitable 99% of the time, and I do believe that. But when you are using it as a Desktop device, the additional memory can help a lot. Desktop replacement is one of the few situations I'd suggest a 4 GB+ model. If you are doing clustering or a Bitcoin node is another situation you would need more ram, but for most everything else the 2 GB is more than enough.
I might end up getting one just to have test it out, I do have one interesting use case I thought of. I am considering moving my 3D printer away from my desk and I find it critical to have a computer next to it so I can make fine adjustments while calibrating the printer. Both 3D slicer programs I use (Cura & Simply3D) support Linux distributions. Almost all my Raspberry Pi's (10+) do not use TV or Monitors and are installed "headless" but this is one scenario where I'd need a keyboard, mouse, and monitor and this is a lot cheaper/small than a full PC.
I actually thought this might be a good portable device when I am on the go, as I always have to bring a laptop to remote in to my PC when on the go, but you still need to carry a display and this is far more clumsy than a Mac Book Air or similar device. I usually have my ipad, bluetooth Keyboard, Laptop, and iPhone so I already am carrying a keyboard with me.
This is a good time to release a desktop version of the Pi with the native Ubuntu distribution and the push to 64 bit.
Lastly, I am really happy to see the 40 pin GPIO exposed to the outside, this means you can still use this device to tinker with electronics.
