The announcement a year ago of Apple’s abandonment of x86 processors and NVIDIA’s interest in acquiring ARM Holdings have put ARM in the spotlight. But did you know that you can build a PC based on an ARM processor today? And what better than a laptop for that. How far is it possible to do this and what are the limits?
The situation of ARM CPUs on PC
The first thing to keep in mind is that an ARM based PC will not be able to use x86 programs due to incompatibility of binaries in which the programs are encoded. You will therefore not be able to use your classic Windows applications on a computer of this type, so this is initially a drawback.
If we take a quick look at the CPU market with ISA ARM, we will see that there are more manufacturers of the same. Which in theory drastically reduces costs when it comes to getting new processors based on this ISA. All this because there is no price duopoly agreed between two manufacturers like Intel and AMD with the x86. At the same time, we cannot forget that we cannot purchase separate ARM processors to mount in a motherboard socket, due to the nature of the PostPC market where the hardware is sold fully integrated.
So the mounting options of a laptop or any other ARM based PC are really rare and are based on pre-built PCs from various manufacturers who have adopted this type of processors. So today it is almost impossible to build a PC with an ARM CPU and most of them are pre-built by different manufacturers, which brings us to the fact that unlike in PCs we cannot build a PC ourselves using one. CPU ARM as if we were doing it with an x86.
Can I mount a laptop with an ARM processor?
Well, yes, so you can and for that you just need to acquire a single board computer with this architecture, the Raspberry Pi being the most used of all for this. Well, that’s actually the only option available and that’s why we’ve focused this tutorial on turning a Raspberry Pi into a laptop.
What advantages does it have? Okay, first of all, a Raspberry Pi is very cheap and so you can have a general task laptop that will be quite powerful. After all, we have the example of the Raspberry Pi 400 itself, which is sold as a complete computer. It should also be taken into account that there is an ecosystem around this single board computer which has grown a lot in recent years due to its popularity.
And considering the low power consumption of the Raspberry Pi, it is not for nothing that there are retro handheld console models based on the popular SBC, it can be used as a laptop without problems. Not with the power of a gaming PC, but it can be a perfect addition for studying, doing office work, and even surfing the internet. With the advantage of doing it anywhere.
The best kits to turn your Raspberry Pi into a laptop
In the market, you can find several kits that allow you to turn your Raspberry Pi into a laptop, it should be remembered that these kits do not include the SBC and many of them are focused on the education market, so they will ask you to be fresh out of the box for a while to assemble them. They are therefore not intended for people with little patience and that is why we have chosen two kits in which you can install a Raspberry Pi easily and without complications.
Pi-Top 3, kit to have your laptop based on ARM
The first kit we are going to talk about is the Pi Top 3, it is a complete laptop case, which includes all the necessary elements to transform the popular SBC into a fully functional laptop, including the display. And in a much simpler way than the other kits that we will see in this article. Its only limit? The fact that it is designed for use with the less powerful Raspberry Pi 3+ instead of the fourth generation, resulting in much lower performance.
The kit comes with a 14 inch Full HD resolution display and a laptop keyboard that can be slid towards us to be able to interact with the components we have installed inside. And like any good laptop, it comes with a lithium polymer battery that will give you 8-10 hours of continuous use with a 90-minute full charge time.
Its setup is extremely simple and it’s a perfect way to have an ARM laptop without having to worry too much about it.
CrowPi2, education-focused kit, but perfect as a low-cost laptop
The second kit that we bring you to assemble your ARM-based laptop is the CrowPi2, like the Pi-Top 3 it is a kit designed to install the Raspberry Pi but this time compatible with the Raspberry Pi 4B. Its size is a little smaller, since its screen despite being Full HD is 11.6 inches. However, it’s much thicker and takes us a decade back in notebook design, but we’ll see the reason for its thickness a bit later.
Other differences compared to the Pi-Top 3? Including a 2-megapixel camera, having built-in speakers, and having a mini-jack for both a microphone and headphones. As for its keyboard, it is not mobile, but it is completely wireless so it will have to be recharged, luckily you can use that of the Raspberry Pi itself to recharge the keyboard and the trackpad that it has integrated.
If we lift the keyboard, we find out what an electronic workshop is and that is that this laptop is really designed for the educational market and to carry out the classic projects for which a Raspberry Pi is used, which does not mean that we cannot use it as a portable kit for more general use. But this is one more special feature that will be appreciated by fans of the STEM world.
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