RoadTest the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (2GB) - Review

Table of contents

RoadTest: RoadTest the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (2GB)

Author: mnitin59

Creation date:

Evaluation Type: Development Boards & Tools

Did you receive all parts the manufacturer stated would be included in the package?: True

What other parts do you consider comparable to this product?: Raspberry Pi 2 B and 3 B+ Model

What were the biggest problems encountered?: Micro HDMI to HDMI Port was not available that's why it took some time for review.

Detailed Review:

Unboxing

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Raspberry Pi Box

 

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Raspberry Pi board

 

 

Introduction

The raspberry pi 4 has the previous model include more memory options, a faster quad-core CPU, support for dual displays at up to 4K resolution, Gigabit Ethernet, USB3.0, wireless LAN, Bluetooth 5.0, and USB-C power.

 

Tutorial Link - https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects/raspberry-pi-getting-started

 

Specifications

  • 1.5GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A72 CPU ( ARM v8, BCM2837)
  • 1GB, 2GB or 4GB RAM (LPDDR4)
  • On-board wireless LAN – dual-band 802.11 b/g/n/ac
  • On-board Bluetooth 5.0, low-energy (BLE)
  • 2x USB 3.0 ports, 2x USB 2.0 ports
  • Gigabit ethernet
  • Power-over-Ethernet  (requires additional HAT)
  • 40-pin GPIO header
  • 2 micro-HDMI ports (up to 4Kp60 supported)
  • H.265 (4Kp60 decode)
  • H.264 (1080p60 decode, 1080p30 encode)
  • OpenGL ES, 3.0 graphics
  • DSI display port, CSI camera port
  • Combined 3.5mm analogue audio and composite video jack
  • Micro-SD card slot
  • USB-C power

 

Features

The Raspberry Pi 4 B has also brought the Operating System named - Raspbian Buster. It is a Debian 10 Buster recently released. This operating System feature has improved desktop user interface, the Chromium 74 browser, and a V3D video driver. This has boosted the performance in the open-source hardware. The major benefits of the driver include running 3D applications on the desktop.

 

Raspberry pi provides the desktop performance environment while using with the best specialization in the use of simple and daily use application programs. If you want to access office tools Libre Office is the best to use as it comes with pre-installed in the Buster Operating System, other software is VLC Player, Python Games, Programming IDE for Python, Java, and Mathematics tools, etc.

 

Test Review:

 

1. Hardware Overview -

The Raspberry pi 4 is the beast compared to the previous model of the Raspberry pi versions. There is a huge change in the durability and performance in the processing the memory and computational calculation in the model. This hardware takes lots of power as it has to support better performances that's why the model provides in comparison with the raspberry pi 3 B+ Model I will demonstrate the certain test results.

 

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Raspberry Pi 4 B

 

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Raspberry 3 B+

 

Power Consumption:

Power TestRaspberry Pi 3 B+Raspberry Pi 4 B
Input Voltage5V 2A5V 3A
PortMini D type PortC Type Port
Tested Voltage (Normal)5.1V 0.2A5.2V 0.45A
Tested Voltage (Load)5.2V 1.2A5.2V 2.21A

 

Data Transfer:

Data TestRaspberry Pi 3 B+ (USB 2.0)Raspberry Pi 4 B (USB 3.0)
Data File (1 GB)3 min 15 Sec1 min 05 Sec
4K Video File (3.2 GB)15 min 50 Sec3 min 10 Sec
Audio File (87 MB)10 Sec03 Sec
Zip File (3.8 GB)18 min 02 Sec6 min 28 Sec

 

Video Resolution:

Video TestRaspberry Pi 3 B +Raspberry pi 4 B
Composite Video SupportYesYes
HDMI SupportYesYes
1080p 60fps SupportYesYes
2K 30fps SupportNoYes
4K 60fps SupportNoYes

 

Connectivity Support:

SupportRaspberry Pi 3 B+Raspberry Pi 4 B
BLE4.05.0
WiFi Module802.11 b/g/n/acdual-band 802.11 b/g/n/ac
GPIO40 Pin40 Pin

 

 

Performance:

The Raspberry pi 4 keeps the CPU usage and memory from getting overloaded at the normal state where compared to the raspberry pi 3 B+ model which usually try to be at the under load but one program causes to overload the CPU and result to restart the operation ongoing i.e while trying to install OpenCV library in raspberry pi.

 

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IoT Application Use:

While testing with the IoT Cloud Configuration with the Cayenne API the Raspberry pi 4 took 2 min approximately to install and display the dashboard reading on-screen where on the raspberry pi 3 B+ it took 5 min for overall showing the same dashboard. The only difference that was found was the temperature on the raspberry pi 4 was high compared to raspberry pi 3 B+ due to the performance use case. The heatsink is necessary to use for safety precaution and for getting better performance from the hardware processor.

 

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Image Processing with OpenCV 4.0

The installation procedure for OpenCV libraries took at least 3-4 hours compared to the raspberry pi 3 B+ which took a similar procedure for 8-10 Hours and for Raspberry pi 2 B took a day. The Raspberry pi 4 has better hardware configuration that why it works with faster operations and recall hardware functions. The video testing works fines as I found no lags while streaming webcam video where there were some flickers frames for the raspberry pi 3 B+ hardware.

 

OpenCV 4.0 link - https://www.pyimagesearch.com/2019/09/16/install-opencv-4-on-raspberry-pi-4-and-raspbian-buster/

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