Review: Raspberry Pi 2 – Model B
Significant improvement on the performance and still very affordable price.
The setup still can be tricky.
The follower of the Raspberry Pi, the new Raspberry Pi 2 was officially released on 2nd of February 2015. The second generation of the device, in fact, superseded and improved the Raspberry Pi 1 model B+ compared to lot of significant things.
The new edition has a 900 MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU and 1 GB RAM. That counts as doubled memory and 6x faster than it’s predecessor. The reason why there was no Raspberry Pi 2 model A, are the features that the Raspberry Pi 2 model B inherits from the Raspberry Pi 1 model B+:
– 40 GPIO (General Purpose Input Output) pins;
– Ethernet port;
– 4 USB ports;
– Combined 3.5mm audio jack and composite video;
– Camera interface (CSI);
– Full HDMI port;
– Display interface (DSI);
– VideoCore IV 3D graphics core;
– Micro SD card slot.
Because of the much improved CPU – ARMv7, now Raspberry Pi 2 can run the full range of ARM GNU-Linux distributions including Snappy Ubuntu Core and Windows 10. Yes you read it right, Microsoft and the Raspberry Pi Foundation have been working closely in order to bring Windows 10 to Raspberry Pi 2, and it will be completely free of charge to the Maker community.
The the new generation of the revolutionary credit-card sized personal computer not only managed to resolve many of the concerning issues, but also managed to maintain the ridiculously low price of US $35.
Although many of the tweaks are the same as in the previous model (the Raspberry Pi model B+), still this PC evolved very much regarding the performance.
Because of the resemblance of the features, Raspberry Pi 2 is fully compatible with the Pi 1 which is a pro because all the tutorials will still be valid. That is very important since the software setup and getting the most out of this PC can be delicate for some users.
Many users would agree that doubling the size of the RAM and adding a powerful quad-core to this unit is more than one could ask for that price.
The Raspberry Pi Foundation succeeded in optimizing many open-source libraries and applications like LibreOffice, WebKit, Scratch, Pixman, Wolfram Mathematica, Python program creation tools and many more.
As for the improvements The Raspberry Pi Foundation made a significant one on the Raspbian project as well, project run by Peter Green and Mike Thompson.
However, Raspberry Pi 1 is still more useful for embedded projects and projects that require low power, so the Raspberry Pi Foundation will continue to meet the demand of Raspberry Pi models B an B+ while there still has one.
Raspberry Pi 2 is highly recommended for educational purposes in schools thanks to the flexibility it offers. It’s way of teaching about programming and basic computer science is interesting and challenging for all the IT fanatics and normal people, and as an experience that clearly resonates, I will mention the fact that there are more than five million Raspberry Pi models that have shipped worldwide.
The Raspberry Pi cannot substitute your main home personal computer, but neither is that the original cause for it’s existence, so we all may concur that this single board computer stands for a valuable thing that happened to all of humanity. To be able to learn programming with Scratch, create a humidity sensor, small server or many more cool projects using this tiny PC and the wide range of tutorials that have been bursting over the Internet in the past years, surely implies that the Raspberry Pi Foundation has done a great job on bringing closer computer science to everyone interested.
In conclusion, the refinement to keep the cost same and offer this much, the Raspberry Pi 2 will leave many enthusiasts without sleep, since the difference and enhancement in interactive use of the device is essential.
