The Pi-Top Lets You Build Your Own Laptop at Home


RaspberryPiTop1As you probably already know, there are an endless number of cool creations made possible by the Raspberry Pi. However, most of the designs out there require some working knowledge of electronics and there is usually a bit of soldering involved to complete the job. Now, thanks to an all-in-one kit called the Pi-Top, you can literally build your own laptop at home.

RaspberryPiTop2The Raspberry Pi 2 was introduced two months ago as a successor to the insanely popular Raspberry Pi which sold more than 4 million units. The founding philosophy behind the Pi was to make a tiny, affordable mini-PC that would help teach kids, but it quickly developed a cult following of do-it-yourselfers, future computer engineers and tinkerers. The Pi-Top embodies the original ideals of the Pi, making programming as easy as – well, pie. The components are shipped unassembled, so your first project is to step through the process of physically building your laptop. The full Pi-Top kit includes a 13.3-inch screen, battery, trackpad, mousepad, laptop casings and Raspberry Pi 2, which would serve as the main motherboard. In addition to the molded case, the kit also comes with 3D printed files so that users can personalize to taste. The entire kit, including the Raspberry Pi 2, is only $299.99; sans the Pi 2 the kit will run you $264.99.

RaspberryPiTop1At only $35 it’s easy to see why the Raspberry Pi has been used in everything from drones and robots to tablets and PC’s. The Raspberry Pi 2 is six times faster than its predecessor and sports more memory, which makes it a feasible option for use as your everyday laptop. It includes a quad-core ARM Cortex A7 CPU and will be able to run a full Linux-based operating system as well as surf the web, check email and run productivity software. The Broadcom VideoCore IV graphics processor is able to render 1080p video and it offers ports galore with four USB ports, an HDMI outlet, an Ethernet slot for storage and GPIO pins. Battery life is estimated to be around eight hours, according to Pi-Top co-founder and CEO Jesse Lozano.

With the introduction of the Pi-Top, the sky and your imagination are the only limits to what you can do with this amazing gadget. The kits will begin shipping in May and you can order yours now through Pi-Top’s website.

Topics: Technology News Gadgets & Peripherals Inventions & Innovations Laptops & Ultrathin Ultrabooks Mini / Nano PCs Raspberry Pi

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