Raspberry Pi 5 4GB review

The Raspberry Pi 5 4GB is the middle memory tier in a line offered in 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB. It was announced in autumn 2023, with launch set for the end of October. The research gives no exact day. It suits people who want a small Linux board for GPIO projects, home services or display output, and who accept that a few extras may be needed to get the best from it.

The Broadcom BCM2712 has four Arm Cortex A76 cores at 2.4GHz. Each core has 512KB of L2 cache, and the cores share 2MB of L3. Memory is LPDDR4X-4267. The VideoCore VII GPU drives dual 4Kp60 HDMI outputs with HDR support, through micro-HDMI connectors, so you need the right cables or adapters.

Owners praise the speed. They say it is much faster than the Pi 4, even when it throttles. That matters if you are weighing an upgrade from an older board. With 4GB of RAM, it suits a modest set of containers or services better than memory-hungry workloads. The 8GB and 16GB variants exist for those.

The board has a microSD slot with SDR104 support. There is no M.2 slot on the board itself. M.2 storage needs a separate adapter and runs over PCIe 2.0 x1. If you want something other than a card, you need to buy that adapter as well. The research does not list adapter models or speeds, so check compatibility before you order one.

Wired networking is Gigabit Ethernet. It is not 2.5GbE. Wireless is dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi with Bluetooth 5.0/BLE. PoE+ is possible only with a separate HAT.

There are two USB 3.0 ports that run at 5Gbps at the same time, plus two USB 2.0 ports. The 40-pin GPIO header is standard. For anyone building around GPIO, that header is the main draw. For anyone who needs fast wired transfers, the Gigabit port sets the ceiling.

Heat is one of the recurring themes in owner reports. Owners report high CPU temperatures, throttling and even shutdowns. They also describe a warmer board than earlier units. With those reports, plan for cooling rather than treating it as an afterthought.

Power supply sensitivity is another recurring theme. The board takes 5V/5A over USB-C with Power Delivery support. Some owners say it will not run on a 3A supply and needs a 5A one. One review says many 65W USB-C laptop supplies do not work with it. Check your charger against the 5A requirement before you assume a spare one will do.

The manufacturer says the latest Raspberry Pi OS is made to get the most from the Pi 5. Trixie and Bookworm work with the board. Older versions do not, so any old image or guide that pins an earlier release needs updating first. Upstream kernel support and community size were not found in the sources, so this section covers only the manufacturer's own statements about Raspberry Pi OS.

The hardware is a clear step up for Pi 4 owners, going by owner reports and the A76 cores. The 4GB tier suits lighter workloads. The extras add up: a 5A supply, cooling and an adapter if you want M.2. If you can plan for those, the board gives you official OS support, a standard GPIO header and two USB 3.0 ports. If you cannot, the heat and power reports are worth taking seriously before you buy.