In the wake of components shortage and Raspberry Pi 4 price hike caused by these, not many saw this coming. Raspberry Pi Foundation just released another board: Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. It feels like Raspberry Pi Pico had been released weeks ago and today we had been treated to that news. The latest Zero board brings improved specification in a familiar form factor.
Meet Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W
It’s easy to mistake the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W with the older generation boards as the footprint of the board remains unchanged. In my interview with Eben, he explained the challenges of cramming more features into that space. The foundation found a way to refresh the design and introduce improved specifications of the Raspberry Pi Zero series. The easiest way to tell these apart is the fastest CPU: quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53 and this time shrouded WiFi chip.
Specification
To my disappointment (some will disagree), Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W still features micro USB ports (I’d love USB-C ports instead) and a mini HDMI connector. It means that existing accessories made for the Zero series will be compatible with the new board.
| CPU | 1GHz quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A53 CPU |
| RAM | 512MB SDRAM |
| WiFi | 2.4GHz 802.11 b/g/n wireless LAN |
| Bluetooth | Bluetooth 4.2, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) |
Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W promises up to 5 times a performance boost thanks to the Cortex series processor. As my board is arriving tomorrow, it’s something I will definitely put to a test. It’s a much-needed upgrade as Zero series boards always came in a great form factor but lacked the performance needed for some projects.
Unfortunately, Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W failed to bring 5GHz WiFi to the table, which is I think the biggest letdown. The rest of the board remains the same. Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W still offers a 40-pin GPIO header, camera connector, microSD card reader and the same USB port configuration.
It’s going to be a perfect upgrade to my USBerry project, which will turn Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W into a USB stick alike portable programming platform.
Final thoughts
Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W is priced at £13.50 at the PiHut store, and £13.20 at Pimoroni but purchases are limited to 1 board per customer. Considering the components shortage, I expect these to disappear from shelves quickly so if you are on the edge, make your decision quickly to get one now. If you are subscribed to The Mag Pi, you will also get the board as a part of the subscription. It’s a great opportunity to sign up now! Got comments? Let me know in this Reddit post.
