14 DAY TRIAL // The Raspberry Pi is famous mostly for its very small form factor, no larger than a credit card, but what if it was turned into a full laptop? That's the question that the Pi-Top team has set out to answer.
A team of five people based in London has been working on the system for a while now. We actually picked up on their project last month. It's called the Pi-Top and it's a 3D printed laptop.
Back then, though, there wasn't much information, and there weren't many photos of the product either on the net, not even on their website.
Now, though, the team has released some new data, although they don't have a confirmation on the price. Guidelines place it at around $300 (€237), which may or may not be reasonable.
After all, the Raspberry Pi itself ships for just around $50-70 / €50 - €70, or less on a good day, and it has everything it needs to turn any TV into a Smart monitor or all-in-one PC.
Then again, the Pi-Top team did include some hardware besides the 3D printed plastic frame, so it's not totally unjustified. Besides, it's not like there are many PCs selling for less than that, barring Chromebooks.
The Pi-Top 3D printed laptop
The Pi-Top case has become 30% thinner in the weeks between the initial introduction and the present time. Don't expect to get the finished product, though, even if you do make the appropriate pledge on Indiegogo (the project is still being crowd-funded).
Rather than shipping actual laptops, the Pi-Top team will send kits containing the injection molded case, non-printable components, and the 3D printer STL files that will allow you to create the necessary parts.
In a way, the small company is upholding the spirit of the Raspberry Pi, which was designed in order to help teach people how to program and create other devices.
For those who want a more complete list, the kit includes the following: a trackpad, a 13.3-inch HD LCD screen, Wi-Fi adapter, acrylic slice (which you slide over the part of the laptop where the Pi goes), a keyboard, battery, PCBs (power management, keyboard & trackpad controller, HDMI to LVDS bridge), a DC wall mount and, of course, the build instructions.
All you need to own yourself is a 3D printer with a bed size of at least 5 inches / 127 mm in width, which only the smallest lack, and mostly not even those.
Availability and pricing
It will be some months before the Pi-Top becomes available through normal channels, but an Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign should go online on October 14.
Customers will get a surprise too: the “easiest, most accessible, compact and functional Raspberry Pi Robot in the world,” as reportedly described by the inventors. It's a bot that puts the Raspberry Pi B+ on wheels, thanks to the robot HAT which boasts motors, servo drivers, converters, LEDS, even proximity sensors. It lets you unclip the Pi from the Pi-Top without turning it off, among other things.
