Raspberry Pi 4 3GB Model Unveiled To Offset More Memory-Driven Price Hikes
Raspberry Pi Foundation is once again raising prices of its single board computer (SBC) lineup, with price hikes ranging from $11.25 on the low end to all the way up to $150. Sadly, this is not an April Fools' Day prank despite the April 1st timing of the announcement. However, as a salve to what Raspberry Pi Foundation is calling a "challenging but temporary situation," it's introducing a version of the Raspberry Pi 4 with 3GB of RAM for $83.75. Notably, Raspberry Pi Foundation introduced a 1GB model last December.
"Providing low-cost general-purpose computing remains a non-negotiable priority for us at Raspberry Pi, so while we can’t avoid passing on a portion of these increased costs, we’re also doing engineering work to expand the range of memory-density options available to our customers: we want to make sure you don’t pay for more memory than you need," Raspberry Pi Foundations says.
The 3GB SKU is supposed to available today. We couldn't find it in stock at any of Raspberry Pi Foundation's authorized resellers, but the company that despite today's date, the 3GB model "is as real as the rest of our products." Reps for the company also reiterated the point in the comments section of the announcement.
Meanwhile, Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 models with 4GB of RAM are going up in price by $25. The 8GB models are increasing by $50, while the 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 is going up by $100.
The sharpest price hike applies to the Raspberry Pi 500+, which just shot up by $150 for both the Desktop Kit and the standalone unit. Likewise, the Compute Module 5 is the other item that is seeing a triple-digit price increase, with a $100 upwards adjustment.
"As painful as these price rises are, there are some brighter spots in the picture. We’ve been able to hold the price of Raspberry Pi 400 with 4GB of memory at $60, and the 1GB and 2GB variants of Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 5 at between $35 and $65. These are capable and versatile modern Raspberry Pi computers at affordable price points," Raspberry Pi Foundation says.
Reiterating its prior messaging, Raspberry Pi Foundation says it still does not anticipate having to raise the price of its classic SBC models, including the Raspberry Pi Zero, Raspberry Pi Zero W, Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, Raspberry Pi 3, Raspberry Pi 3B+, Raspberry Pi 3A+, Compute Module 3+, and Compute Module 1.
Raspberry Pi Foundation states in its blog post that it's holding onto "substantial inventory" of LPDDR2 DRAM that all of those products are base on, hence why it can maintain current pricing even as memory prices skyrocket.
The other silver lining is that Raspberry Pi Foundation has vowed to slash prices when the memory nightmare is over.
