The Raspberry Pi 4 in 2019 was launched without a heads-up to the millions of enthusiasts. It is the latter half of 2022 already, and the IT world is rife with rumors, speculations, and predictions about the Raspberry Pi 5. What’s more, Raspberry Pi Foundation is keeping mum on its next release, and while this hearsay continues, the most logical deduction is to expect the release in early 2023.
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Judging the history of Raspberry Pi reveals a trend in their releases. And considering the opportunities created by Raspberry Pi 4 and the launch of newer technologies since 2019, you can guess what the Raspberry Pi 5 could offer.
With this article, we hope to answer all the questions you have about the Raspberry Pi 5.
First things first.
What is the release date of the Raspberry Pi 5? In 2024 possibly?
The simple answer is that there is none, but at least we have a clue.
That being said, the CEO of Raspberry Pi foundation, Mr. Eben Upton has made it clear in no uncertain terms that the Raspberry Pi 5 isn’t on the horizon till 2024. In a recent interview with a leading YouTube channel, Mr. Upton clears the air on speculations and states that the year 2023 is going to be a year of recovery. According to him, they are not out of the woods yet, but he feels the situation is improving and operations should stablize completely in the second half of 2023.
What specifications will the Raspberry Pi 5 offer?
Speaking as an outsider, we can imagine at least three focus areas that would decide what the Raspberry Pi 5 may offer.
Raspberry Pi 5 Upgrades
For the simple reason that Raspberry Pi 5 will have to see you through the next four years, upgrades are inevitable. So, you can expect better essentials like the CPU, RAM, and storage.
Raspberry Pi 4 Issues
The Raspberry Pi Foundation would look at addressing issues that originated with the Raspberry Pi 4. Better heat management, a versatile selection of I/O ports, and design upgrades are key areas of improvement.
Target Audience
Finally, one can’t forget the principal idea on which the Raspberry Pi Foundation offers this versatile computer. That is to offer an inexpensive and compact computer that anyone can customize to their need.
Originally, designed for application in the education industry, the Raspberry Pi now has formidable demand stemming from agencies working in the marketing domain. And while computing enthusiasts and DIY hobbyists may not be a sustainable market for the Raspberry Pi, it is still a substantial one.
Raspberry Pi 5: Expectations
Raspberry Pi 5 CPU
It is unlikely that Raspberry Pi 5 would move away from a Broadcom CPU. With its Quad-Core Cortex-A72 (ARM v8) 64-bit CPU delivering a 1.5GHz clock speed, Broadcom is sure to offer a CPU that has clock speeds of 2GHz or more. Some possibilities include Cortex-A73 and Cortex-A75, which offer up to 2.8GHz and 2.9GHz, respectively.
One may think more CPU cores are unlikely with the Raspberry Pi 5, and that they would reserve that for later iterations. The competition is already offering octa-core processors, albeit at a considerably higher price.
Raspberry Pi 5 RAM
The launch of DDR5 RAM in 2020 and its growing mainstream acceptance have everyone convinced that the Raspberry Pi 5 would feature this high-performance RAM.
Although there is no way to be sure, the discontinuation of the 1GB Pi 4 variant is an indicator that the Raspberry Pi 5 will not have a 1GB variant. We wouldn’t be surprised if Pi 5 is offered with a minimum 4GB RAM.
I/O ports
The idea behind using mini-HDMI ports instead of HDMI ports was so that you would get dual video outputs. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to have gone down well with Raspberry Pi users, despite support for dual [email protected], as they need additional cables and adapters. One solution would be to include USB-C Alt Mode DisplayPort, as it would help get a smaller device and it’ll be good to have USB-C instead of conventional USB-A ports.
The 40-pin GPIO header has been the main focus and attention of hobbyists, and they can rest assured this will not change anytime soon.
SoC: Will Raspberry Pi 5 get a new one?
Rumor has it that the Raspberry Pi 5 could feature SoC that Raspberry Pi designed in-house. Doing so would mean spending considerable resources on research and development to fix something that wasn’t broken. For this reason, we feel that this may be what it is, just a rumor.
Heat Management and The Pi 4
While the Raspberry Pi 4 is compact and powerful, there have been several complaints concerning its less-than-efficient thermal design. Retailers do not fail to include heat sinks and fans with their kits, but despite this, the Raspberry Pi runs hot. Arguably, the poor heat dissipation is the Raspberry Pi 4’s greatest flaw and an issue that the Raspberry Pi 5 should address.
About the Pi 5’s Storage
Like it’s predecessors, the Raspberry Pi 4B uses an SD card to store and run the Raspberry Pi OS. Preparing for the future, we may see a shift to an eMMC storage that offers 400 MB/s of write speed in comparison to 12 MB/s of the SD card reader. However, the likelihood of that happening with the Raspberry Pi 5 is low because a shift to eMMC storage would entail added cost, so this shift would have lesser priority.
Connectivity
Presently, Raspberry Pi offers IEEE 802.11ac standard (or Wi-Fi 5) along with Bluetooth 5.0. So, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Raspberry Pi 5 was to offer Wi-Fi 6 or even Wi-Fi 6E. Of course, the same can be said about Bluetooth, expect an upgrade to Bluetooth 5.2.
For everyone in my mentions and direct messages asking about it, #Bluetooth support for @Raspberry_Pi #PicoW just got added to the milestones for the upcoming 1.5.0 release of the Pico C SDK. I’d expect to see support publically released this month. https://t.co/PIXXYdPR4L
— Alasdair Allan (@aallan) January 4, 2023
What will the Raspberry Pi 5 cost?
The Raspberry Pi 4 came with four RAM options 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB, and 8 GB, with the 1 GB version priced at $35. With Raspberry Pi pulling the plug on the $35 Pi 4 1GB version and offering the 2GB version for $45, expect a further increase.
There is no way to know the price for sure, but it is unreasonable to expect the Raspberry Pi 5 to offer a sub $50 price tag. Since some competitors offer octa-core processors and eMMC storage for under $70, you can expect a few variants to be priced below that $70 mark.
In Conclusion
The Raspberry Pi thrives on two factors that make it a desirable computing device, customizability, and price. So, out of all the prevailing uncertainties, one thing is certain, the Raspberry Pi 5 will not be an exception to these factors.
You’ll have to wait till 2024 to get a glimpse of the Raspberry Pi 5, but 2023 promises greater availablity of older models. That means you won’t left at the mercy of scalpers, or hitting that refresh button on rpilocator.com desparately try to get a Pi 4.
