It also requires a power adapter that can deliver at least 3 amps of power and 5 volts, though you may be able to get away with 2.5 amps if you don’t attach many peripherals to the USB ports. The microSD card slot is also twice as fast, offering a theoretical maximum of 50 MBps versus 25 MBps on the 3B+.īecause the new SoC needs more power, the Raspberry Pi 4 B charges over USB Type-C instead of micro USB. The higher bus speed that enables USB 3 support also allows the on-board Ethernet port to support true Gigabit connections (125 MBps) where the last-gen models had a theoretical maximum of just 41 MBps.

The most important new features are the faster processor, a 1.5-GHz Broadcom CPU and GPU, more and faster RAM, the addition of USB 3 ports, dual micro HDMI ports (instead of a single HDMI connection) and support for 4K output. If all you’re doing with your Pi is running a security camera or playing old arcade games, you might be able to stick with what you have, but you’ll definitely want a Pi 4 for future projects. The newer platform has a number of distinctive advantages, including speeds that are two to four times faster, support for USB 3 and true Gigabit Ethernet and dual video output with resolutions up to 4K.

However, if you’re looking for an all-around, general purpose Raspberry Pi, there’s no doubt that it’s the Raspberry Pi 4, which goes by the official model name of Raspberry Pi 4 B (there’s no 4 A, so the B is superfluous).īut let’s say you already own a Raspberry Pi 3 or an earlier model and are wondering if you should also get a Raspberry Pi 4. But choosing which Raspberry Pi to buy is an open question because there are reasons you might want to get a different model, such as the $5 Raspberry Pi Zero. Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (Image credit: Tom's Hardware)Įlsewhere, we've outlined extensively why every tech geek should own a Raspberry Pi.

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