The 2GB RAM model of Raspberry Pi 4 has dropped in price by $10 to the $35 — the same as the 1GB. The price drop followed the confirmation last week that a new RPi 4 has been released that fixes the USB Type-C problem.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation celebrated the 8th birthday of the original Raspberry Pi SBC by cutting the price of the the previously $45 2GB LPDDR4 Raspberry Pi 4 Model B model to $35. Although the 1GB RAM model will still be available, it will likely fade quickly as the 2GB model assumes the role of the entry-level SKU. The 4GB DDR4 model stays at $55.

In the announcement, Raspberry Pi cofounder and Raspberry Pi Trading CEO Eben Upton confessed what most folks already know: a minimum of 2GB RAM is necessary to fulfill the Raspberry Pi 4’s mission of being the first Pi to act as a desktop PC replacement. Upton went on to note that compared to the original Raspberry Pi, the Raspberry Pi 4 has 40x the CPU performance, 10x the bandwidth, and 4x the screen pixels, among other enhancements. The SBC also has 4x to 8x the RAM of the early 512MB models.

Raspberry Pi 4 detail view
(click image to enlarge)

For years, the Raspberry Pi lagged behind its Linux hacker board competitors in its processor, RAM, and feature set. That began to change with the quad-core Cortex-A53 Raspberry Pi 3, although even the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ that launched two years ago was limited to a paltry 1GB of LPDDR2 RAM. With the newly lowered price on the 1.5GHz, quad -A72 Raspberry Pi 4, the platform is very near the top in price/performance.

 
RPi 4 Type-C issues fixed

The announcement followed some more good news that was broken last week by The Register: the next Raspberry Pi 4 you buy will likely be a newly released PCB that fixes the USB Type-C problems of the original. Upton confirmed to the publication that the update had been rolled into a PCB Design for Manufacturing (DFM) process and was now widely available.

Soon after the release of the RPi 4 in June, some customers began to complain about errors in detection circuitry on the Pi causing certain unofficial power adapters to mistake the SBC for an audio device. In addition to fixing the Type-C mismatch, the new release also moved “the WLCSP SD card voltage switch to the top side” to protect it from damage, and also implemented “silk screen tweaks to reduce solder bridging in manufacture,” Upton told The Register.

Upon also revealed that the 4GB model was the most popular SKU. With the 2GB price cut, that could begin to change.

 
Further information

The Raspberry Pi 4 Model B with 2GB RAM is now available for $35 here. More information may be found in Upton’s price drop notice on the Raspberry Pi blog.