Those who love Raspberry Pi, the single-board computer developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, can now take advantage of Pi-Top from Adafruit. The laptop kit for Raspberry Pi B+, Pi 2 and Pi 3 is being sold for $274.95, and it promises to give users everything they need to create their own "laptop."
Raspberry Pi is not included in the kit, but it comes with the basics — a laptop screen, base top, base bottom and Pi-Top Hub PCB for power management. It also has an 8 GB SD card, a charger, connecting cables and the Pi-Top OS.
The screen is 13.3 inches and has a 1366 by 768 resolution. The base bottom has a smart battery pack, designed to run for up to 12 hours at a time. With Raspberry Pi included, the entire laptop weighs less than four pounds. The manufacturers say that Raspberry Pi 3 is the ideal version of the single-board computer for the kit.
Adafruit also sells a computer add-on pack for Raspberry PI that includes a keyboard, HDMI cable and wired mouse for a much lower price of $22.95. However, the laptop kit comes with the entire framework designed to create a physical computer.
Raspberry Pi was originally created by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a UK-based organization geared toward educating both adults and children on computers. Raspberry Pi itself is no larger than a credit card. It can be plugged into a computer monitor or TV and act as a computer, as long as the user has a standard keyboard and mouse. Many educators have been able to use Raspberry Pi to teach coding and computer languages, such as Python.
Raspberry Pi has developed five models of its small computer thus far, as well as a number of accessories for developers. For example, it now offers a camera module, Wi-Fi dongle and touchscreen monitor. These may all be more feasible options for those who want to add on to their Raspberry Pi slowly, or don't have the financial means to splurge on the Adafruit kit.
Eben Upton, Rob Mullins, Jack Lang and Alan Mycroft of the University of Cambridge developed the concept for Raspberry Pi back in 2006.
