Raspberry Pi 500+
Ranked 3 of 3 keyboard computers by recommenders
Recommended as a premium desktop kit that is quick to set up and close to the original Pi vision; critics find the price high.
Recommended as a premium desktop kit that is quick to set up and close to the original Pi vision; critics find the price high.
10 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 60%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 1.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Premium desktop kit, well regarded
“with the Pi offering a premium desktop these days”
Comment from 17 Dec 2025 in “Windows 11 will ask consent before sharing personal files with AI after outrage” “the Pi 400 and 500 desktop kits are really great”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “The Misuses of the University”
Other keyboard computers people recommend
The two most recommended other keyboard computers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HP Keyboard Computer with Ryzen AI | 10 | 12 | 45% | 1 | — | — |
| Raspberry Pi 400 | 9 | 2 | 82% | 6 | — | — |
| Raspberry Pi 500+This page | 6 | 4 | 60% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
All 11 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“not enough actual horsepower to do anything useful”
“I would have had to buy the 500+ with 16GB of ram and the mechanical keyboard, neither of which I wanted.”
“Lovely little computer for $250, not so much $400”
“the Pi 400 and 500 desktop kits are really great”
“it is way closer to their original vision than anything else”
“Any idea why raspberry didn't use compute modules in the pi500? IMHO that should have been trivially upgradable”
“All in it felt like good value for money for something that took about 3 minutes to get up and running.”
“arrives unusable until the user provides an OS via another computer”
“with the Pi offering a premium desktop these days”
“perhaps a Raspberry pi 5 16gb, the pi 500+ or any other mini pc or a cheap chromebook would be enough to start”
“Simple, reliable, easy to replace.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.