New Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ brings new features to the tiny computer

We’ve covered every Raspberry Pi release here at TreeHugger and for good reason. For six years now, the little microcomputer has been the perfect gateway to DIY gadgetry, experimentation and education. People have made amazing projects with the devices at home and millions have been distributed to schools.

Since the first model’s launch, 19 million of these devices have been sold and 9 million of those were of the last model, the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, which was the first 64-bit version and finally included wireless connectivity — a feature that fans had been waiting for since its inception. It’s a remarkable journey for a tiny computer that was only ever meant to be an educational tool and had founders that believed they’d only sell a few thousand units.

Now, two years after the release of the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, the folks at the Raspberry Pi Foundation have released the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+. The 3B+ isn’t as huge of an upgrade as the Pi 3B was, but it does offer a faster processor and better thermal management. There’s a 200MHz increase in CPU clock frequency and three times the wired and wireless network throughput. According to the foundation, the improvements allow the computer to sustain higher performance for longer periods of time.

The 3B+ also comes with two additional USB ports and a new wireless combo chip that provides dual-band wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.2. The 3B+ also now supports Gigabit Ethernet and Power-over-Ethernet.

The B+ uses a little more power than the Pi 3B, so the makers encourage consumers to use a 2.5A power supply. As usual, this latest iteration of the Raspberry Pi is being sold for $35, the same as its predecessor and previous models are still for sale as well.

You can watch a video introduction to the latest Raspberry Pi below.