Raspberry Pi's delectable new model is a $70 computer in a keyboard

(Image credit: Raspberry Pi Foundation)

Raspberry Pi has been making low-cost computers for over eight years, and along the way has delivered increasingly impressive performance while keeping its prices down. This has always been a product where the most important factor with regards to its accessibility is cost, and so Raspberry Pi has by default been sold as a single-board computer with no keyboard, no mouse, and so on (though since 2016 the foundation has also sold 'desktop kits').

The Raspberry Pi 400 is a new and scrumptious form-factor based on the latest revision of the board, Raspberry Pi 4, and channels some of the great British computer companies of the 80s by delivering a PC in a keyboard. It's £67/$70 for the Pi 400, or £94/$100 for a kit containing the Pi 400 plus a mouse, power supply, mini HDMI cable, and a 'beginner's guide' manual. And it looks good enough to eat.

The Pi 400 won't be playing Asssassin's Creed: Valhalla, but if you're after a Minecraft machine or My First PC it will do the job handsomely. The specs as listed on Raspberry Pi's site are: quad-core 64-bit processor, 4GB of RAM, wireless networking, dual-display output, and 4K video playback, as well as a 40-pin GPIO header to connect further components.

There's something very cool in seeing history come back around like this. In particular it reminds me of the original ZX Spectrum, which came in 16K or 48K variants, and was similarly a computer in a keyboard. The goal at the time for Spectrum was creating a sub-£100 computer for the masses (it would just miss: the 16K model launched at £125, but would be reduced to £99 around a year later).

Almost 40 years on, the Raspberry Pi 400 keeps that design legacy alive: and looks absolutely delicious while doing so.

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."