Last friday the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B 1024MB, a credit card sized single-board computer, arrived from Element14.
First a big thank you to Element14 for letting me RoadTest this product.
In this blog post I will share some unboxing pictures and my initial thoughts.
Unboxing
Box contents and pictures
The box contained 2 items:
- The Raspberry Pi 2 (*)
- Quick start guide & safety instruction manual
(*) In the pictures the anti static bag, in which the RPi2 came, was already removed
Initial thoughts
Raspberry Pi B vs. Raspberry Pi 2
Design Improvements
- USB ports are not sticking out anymore
- Composite video moved to 3,5mm jack
- No in/output on all sides (RPiB : 3 sides, RPi2 : 2 sides)
- No SD sticking out due to the replacement of SD with micro SD card
When you look at the design, improvements were made if you compare with the older Raspberry Pi B.
However these improvements were already introduced with the Raspberry Pi Model B plus (the form factor of a RPiB+ and RPi2 are the same).
Additional features
- Extended GPIO to 40 pins
- 2 extra USB ports
Enhancements (compared to both RPiB and RPiB+)
- 900 MHz quad-core CPU (ARMv7) vs. 700MHz single core (ARMv6)
- 1024MB of RAM vs. 512MB of RAM
More processing power was added by using a quad core CPU. Also because of the ARMv7 instruction set, it can run even more linux distributions (and a special Windows 10 verison).
Possible enhancements which are not (yet) present
- On/Off, reset buttons
- Gbit LAN
- eMMC
- SATA connector
There are actually a lot of things we can up with which are not present. But does the RPi2 need them to be better?
What I miss the most is an on/off switch, but the RPiB also did not have this. How did I solve this? I use a distribution plug with a separate switch.
And I connect an external HD to the RPi so I do not really need a SATA connector.
Getting started
Do we have everything we need to get started: yes and no.
If you buy the Raspberry Pi 2 keep in mind that the box does not contain everything you need to get started.
You at least need a micro sd card and a 5V micro USB power supply. A HDMI cable can also come in handy if you want to attach a display directly to the Pi.
I still have a 5V 2.1A and a 5V 1A power supply and I already prepared 2 micro sd cards, 1 with OpenELEC and 1 with Raspbian.
You might also considder buying a case.
Do you have questions and or comments? Do you want me to test something specific?
Let me know by posting a comment and/or sending a private message.
Top Comments