Raspberry Pi 3A+ review

In this episode of HPR, I will do a quick review of the Raspberry Pi 3A+, the latest release of the Raspberry Pi foundation.

Specs

The Raspberry Pi 3A+ has almost the same hardware as its big brother/sister the 3B+ :

BCM2837 BO SOC (system on chip), a quad core 64-bit ARM v8 processor, running at 1.4 GHz

On board wireless :

WiFi : 2.4 and 5 GHz 802.11 c/y/n/ac

Bluetooth : 4.2 and BLE

MicroSD card for storing the operating system and the data

Full size HDMI connector

3.5 mm jack connector for audio and composite video output

MicroUSB connector for the power supply

40-pin header with the same pinout as every other Raspberry Pi

The differences are :

Only one full size USB connector, instead of four on the 3B+

No ethernet connector

Only 512 MB or SDRAM instead of 1 GB on the 3B+

Size

The Raspberry Pi 3A+ is 6.7 x 5.6 cm (2.6 x 2.2 in) and 11 mm high (.45 in). But if you plug a ribbon in the header, then it takes a lot of space.

In this case, it’s probably better to unsolder the header, and solder a right angle header in place, so the pins are pointing to the side of the board and not upwards

With a bit of caution and the help of some desoldering wick, it’s not a complex operation, because there is no component near the GPIO header.

Of course if you plan on using a HAT, then you’re better off using the straight header. The Raspberry Pi 3A+ is actually the same size than a standard HAT.

Use case

Since the Raspberry Pi 3A+ doesn’t have an ethernet port, I think I will not use it for server stuff like Mosquitto or Pi-Hole, for which a good network connection is required. Also, those servers sometimes need a keyboard and a mouse, and with only one USB port, that’s not too practical.

For me, the A+ will be used to upgrade projects currently using a Raspberry Pi ZeroW, and for which I need a little more power. The on board WiFi and the small form factor, combined with the extra power, makes the 3A+ an ideal replacement for the ZeroW.

Credits

The sound used for the opening and closing sequence is Speaker X-Clash by Daniel H, and is released under a CC-BY-NC license.