Intro

Raspberry Pi has been my go-to solution for background tasks for quite some time now. I've used it for all sorts of things, including software testing and displaying real-time stock prices on an e-ink screen.

In this article, I will provide a brief overview of the pros and cons of the model I've had opportunity to use the most, which is the 8-gig version of the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B.

Specs

  • CPU: 1.5 GHz, Quad-core, 64-bit
  • RAM: From 1 up to 8 GB
  • Connectivity:
    • 2 x microHDMI (4K video)
    • 2 x USB 3.0
    • 2 x USB 2.0
    • USB C power connector
    • Dual-band 2.4-5 GHz WiFi
    • Bluetooth 5 / BLE
    • 1000 Mbps Ethernet port
    • 40 GPIO connectors
    • CSI camera port
    • DSI display port with touchscreen support
    • microSD slot
    • Power-over-Ethernet support
  • Misc:
    • H.265 decode (4kp60)
    • H.264 decode (1080p60)
    • H.264 encode (1080p30)
    • OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0, 3.0

The Good

In this section I'll briefly explain the key elements that make Raspberry Pi 4 Model B a good buy.

Connectivity

With more modern connectivity options than the Raspberry Pi 3, this generation allows us to exploit technologies like KVM switches or USB charging to the fullest.

Additionally, support for modern 5GHz WiFi, microHDMI, Bluetooth and Ethernet makes it a viable 4K streaming device, game server or anything else that benefits from more transmission bandwidth.

Energy Efficiency

According to my measurements:

  • Raspberry Pi 3 consumes ~5.2W at max CPU load
  • Raspberry Pi 4 consumes ~6.5W at max CPU load

That's about 125% higher energy consumption but more than 3 times the performance as reported by raspberrypi.com, which is impressive on it's own.

It's even more impressive when you consider that an average light bulb consumes about 10W of energy.

dog on an obstacle course

Performance

Raspberry Pi 4 is roughly three times more efficient than Raspberry Pi 3, which suggests that anything Raspberry Pi 3 could handle, it's successor can handle better.

Additionally, the 8-gig version comes with enough RAM to easily handle more demanding tasks such as video encoding, web hosting or file compression.

I've used it for various things, including:

  • Minecraft server hosting
  • CI/CD pipeline (code building and deployment)
  • Web hosting
  • Stream encoding

.. and I must say, I'm impressed! 😃

The Bad

In this section I'll briefly explain the key elements that make Raspberry Pi 4 Model B a bad buy.

The Heat

Raspberry Pi 4 generates a significant amount of heat. In fact, if you're running it in a warm room and have a fanless case or no case at all, it may overheat and die.

While this isn't an inherent design flaw and can be avoided easily by capping the CPU frequency, I feel like there should be a warning on the box or a heatsink included.

Crude

Raspberry Pi 4, just like its predecessors, is very crude when it comes to adjusting the most basic settings.

You might change values via the Configuration Window, only to be suddenly greeted by a black screen and a device that refuses to boot the next day.

I have spent countless hours googling and scratching my head, trying to find the possible cause of the Pi refusing to boot, only to discover that, for some reason, I have to dig into the .config file and tweak framebuffers or legacy graphic driver modes.

That is not my idea of a "chill weekend".

Price

Raspberry Pi 4 with 1 gig of RAM used to start from $35. However, nowadays, prices are going through the roof, which makes it a bad buy, at least temporarily.

Conclusion

Raspberry Pi 4 is by far my favorite device of this kind, as it is relatively inexpensive (at least was in the past), energy efficient, versatile and performant. If you could grab it near the retail price, you would get your money's worth threefold.