Raspberry Pi 5 gets a cheaper 2GB option

There’s a new Raspberry Pi 5 in town: a 2GB variant that knocks the price of the microcomputer down to $50. The lower RAM doesn’t necessarily mean it comes with fewer capabilities, just that it won’t be up to some RAM-intensive tasks. Raspberry Pi Foundation CEO Eben Upton says the device is “functionally identical to its predecessor.”

When the Raspberry Pi 5 was released last year, it only came in a 4GB variant for $60 and an 8GB version for $80, making them both $5 more expensive than the corresponding models of the Raspberry Pi 4. While the 2GB version might not be ideal for doing things like running AI applications or using it as a full-blown media center, Upton says many customers will likely find that it “works perfectly well” for less demanding use cases.

The Raspberry Pi 5 is the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s most powerful, featuring its in-house RP1 I/O controller, along with a quad-core Arm Cortex-A76 processor running at 2.4GHz. To create the 2GB model, the Raspberry Pi Foundation built a cost-optimized version of its processor that eliminates any functionality it doesn’t need. The result is a cheaper chip with the same features, including a PCI Express 2.0 interface.

You can purchase the cheaper Raspberry Pi 5 option from authorized resellers, such as CanaKit and PiShop.us.