Raspberry Pi Model A+ is the smallest yet, cheapest too!

For anyone not in the know, the Raspberry Pi is a great piece of technology originally developed with the intention of promoting the teaching of basic computer science in schools, but has proven to be massively popular with general computer programming enthusiasts around the world who have used them to make some quite cool things since its initial release back in 2012.

Earlier on this year the Raspberry Pi Foundation announced the successor to the B model, simply called B+ which although didn’t have any upgrades in terms of performance, it had been re-designed to incorporate some of the things that users had been requesting over the last couple of years; for example, better power usage, additional USB ports and other general improvements.

And now, a few months on the Raspberry Pi foundation has taken the lid of the new updated A model, called – you’ve guessed it, A+. Just like with the original “A” model, the A+ uses the same Broadcom BCM2835 chipset and also has the same 256MB of RAM, but the main changes comes in terms of its footprint. The A+ is now 21mm shorter than its predecessor, this is due to the fact that the A+ doesn’t have an Ethernet port – neither did the original “A”, but the board size remained the same. But now, its smaller size makes it more appealing to the enthusiasts who like to use it to program things such as robotic arms, or perhaps a drone (it’s actually much lighter too).

Along with its smaller size, other optimisations comes in terms of power performance, it’s thought that the new A+ model only consumes around 1 Watt of power – quite impressive really.

The final area that has also been improved is the price! Whereas before the Model A would have cost around US$25, the newer model will only set you back around US$20, which is also good news I’m sure you’ll all agree. If you want to get your hands on one, they are available now from various distributors.