Its not very price competitive now. Its moved into the low end N100 territory with ITX boards and while its smaller and a bit less power its no where near as performant. They will still have some use in smaller applications but 5V x 5A is a chunky cable. I am not convinced this is the way now.
My main uses for them weren't ever desktop but tinkering with simple robotics / telepresence, automation, aprs / mapping, 3d printing (octoprint). Seems like the 5 is overkill for that. I guess there's always the pi zero.
Haven't read the article but is it seriously 5V 5A for the power cable? It seems absurd that they wouldn't put a voltage regulator on board to accept a 12V 2A power supply.
Even still I wonder if they could have added USB-PD capabilities in order to use 9V or 15V to bring the current down. A 5V 5A USB supply is very unique (even the previous 5V 3A was niche) as standard USB supplies that we're all used to typically max out at 2.5A. $12 for the official power supply is a decent price but you're severely limited on options if you don't have the official supply.
Its not very price competitive now. Its moved into the low end N100 territory with ITX boards and while its smaller and a bit less power its no where near as performant. They will still have some use in smaller applications but 5V x 5A is a chunky cable. I am not convinced this is the way now.
My main uses for them weren't ever desktop but tinkering with simple robotics / telepresence, automation, aprs / mapping, 3d printing (octoprint). Seems like the 5 is overkill for that. I guess there's always the pi zero.
Haven't read the article but is it seriously 5V 5A for the power cable? It seems absurd that they wouldn't put a voltage regulator on board to accept a 12V 2A power supply.
The idea is they run off USB. Having said that, I'm pretty sure most of us just plug it into mains power.
Even still I wonder if they could have added USB-PD capabilities in order to use 9V or 15V to bring the current down. A 5V 5A USB supply is very unique (even the previous 5V 3A was niche) as standard USB supplies that we're all used to typically max out at 2.5A. $12 for the official power supply is a decent price but you're severely limited on options if you don't have the official supply.
It's pretty hefty… and there's an official cooling solution to remove all that heat too…
They're basically going for the low end desktop market with it I think.