Back in September a new version of the Pi2 quietly appeared on Farnell’s website without a fanfare. It’s exactly the same as the original Pi2 except the processor is BCM2837 running at 900 MHz instead of the BCM2836.
Why the New Revision?
By changing processors to the Pi3’s BCM2837, the older BCM2836 can cease production and the Pi2 gets an upgrade to the newer, faster A53 CPU. To keep the BCM2836 in production in small quantities no longer made economic sense.
Raspberry Pi2B 1.2 with BCM2837
I pre-ordered one immediately. It arrived yesterday and I tweeted some quick photos straight away…
Very cute packaging indeed for the new Pi2 v1.2. Love it. pic.twitter.com/6eK41OTny5
— RasPi.TV (@RasPiTV) November 16, 2016
The new ‘inside the box’ packaging is a lovely little brown bag with a metal closure. These Pi2 are machine packed, which is an incremental process improvement on the production line.
Does Anyone Still Use Pi2?
The Pi2B 1.2 is mainly for industrial clients who built systems round Pi2. Upgrading the silicon enables the Pi2 to stay in production, but also effectively offers a ‘no-wifi’ variant of Pi3. Some applications don’t want or need wifi/BT capability (additional compliance/security concerns). So now you have a choice.
How Much is it?
$35 – same as Pi3B. Unless you have a compelling reason, I’d still favour the Pi3B for most uses, but I bought one for the collection. It looks like you can buy them from RS, CPC or Farnell. It’s doubtful that second-tier vendors will stock it.
Up-to-date Distro Required
If you buy one, you’ll need an up-to-date OS image with the latest kernel and firmware or it won’t boot.
Compelling reasons might be no power loss to the absent WiFi or Bluetoooth, the availability (without DTS tricks and/or clock settings) of the more capable UART and the lower clocking of 900 Mhz which saves power also and avoid heatsinks. I have one now for a couple of weeks and I really like I can use it with less psu’s.
The Pi2 is now the best Pi for general use. the builtin wifi/bt doesn’t get in the way of the useful UART and will now have the ability to boot from things other than the Sdcard
Back on sale Ri2 v1.1! Your mother’s leg !
BCM2837 Processor – shit, heated terribly !!!
Upgrading the silicone enables…
Bewbs. Ugrading silicone enables bewbs.
I think that’s now two Pis missing from the family photo? ;-)
Actually three (A+ 512, Pi Zero 1.3 and Pi2B 1.2). Don’t jump the gun! I’ve been working on it this afternoon.
Ah yes, I forgot about the newer A+ ;-)
Silicone is used for lubrication in place of dino oil in machines (cars, etc.) and in surgery to… augment.
Silicon is use in electronics.
LOL I have two degrees in Chemistry, so I know that. But it doesn’t prevent typos. Thanks for pointing it out so I can correct it :)
…or as we call it, here in Cheltenham, “Raspberry Pi, GCHQ Edition”
Can you add a row to the tables in your Feb 2015 ‘Raspberry Pi2 – Power and Performance Measurement’ for the new V1.2 replacement ?
I haven’t measured it yet