Raspberry Pi Zero 2W

The new Raspberry Pi Zero 2W is a significant upgrade from the previous generation Pi Zero.

Unfortunately, due to technical limitations, the RAM has been limited to 512MB. This severely hampers Internet browsing on the Zero 2W.

For a few tens of euros, this is a wonderful little product that is useful for many projects. In addition, you can keep all the accessories you have already purchased for the Pi Zero W: It is compatible.

Technical specifications of the Raspberry Pi Zero 2W

Single-board computer with 64-bit quad-core: The Raspberry Pi Zero W 2, which still measures 65 × 30 mm, is based on a 64-bit quad-core SoC of the Broadcom model BCM2710A1, which in turn is based on four ARM Cortex-A53 and runs at a clock rate of 1.0 GHz.

The most important change is the upgrade to the powerful CPU: the Pi Zero 2W uses the same BCM2710A1 SoC used in the Raspberry Pi 3. This allows it to increase its performance by five times, using all four cores. It boots into the Raspberry Pi operating system three times faster and is generally much faster than the previous generation Pi Zero.

The Pi Zero 2 W achieves about 80 percent of the performance of the Raspberry Pi 3B. Using all cores, it is about five times faster than the Pi Zero W. However, the Raspberry Pi Zero 2W is half as fast as the Raspberry Pi 4.

First, let’s take a quick look at the technical specifications of the new Pi Zero:

BCM2710A1 SoC

1 GHz quad-core, 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53 processor
VideoCore IV GPU

RAM

512MB LPDDR2 RAM

Wireless Connectivity

Wireless LAN 11 b/g/n (2.4 GHz only): The WLAN/BT chip has been upgraded to a metal housing.
Bluetooth 4.2 / Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)

Ports

microSD card slot
miniHDMI port
USB 2.0 OTG port
microUSB power connector
40-pin GPIO connector with HAT support
Composite video via solder terminals
CSI camera connector
Note that the Pi Zero 2 series still does not support wired network connection via Ethernet. You can add a USB 2.0 dongle to get Ethernet.

Various

Reset pin via solder pin
Dimensions: 65mm x 30mm x (5.2mm maximum height z)
Weight: 10g

Adapters for the Pi Zero 2W

You will probably need some adapters to use the Zero 2W. They are compatible with its predecessors (Pi Zero / Pi Zero W):

miniHDMI to HDMI adapter
OTG micro-USB to USB Type-A adapter
Camera adapter cable (due to the smaller connector footprint on the Zero 2)

MicroSD cards that the Pi Zero 2 W supports

There are microSD cards available today that offer up to 1TB of storage. The Pi Zero 2 W can support them without any problems. Note that the first partition for booting (FAT32) can be quite small, for example 64 MB.

The main data/operating system partition will usually be an ext4 partition. ext4 supports volumes up to 1 exabyte (1000 terabytes) and file sizes up to 16 terabytes.

The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W easily supports all sizes of microSD cards. Whether it’s a 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, 200GB, 256GB, 400GB, 512GB or 1TB microSD card.

What are the limitations of the Raspberry Pi Zero 2W?

The 512 MB of RAM makes it difficult to use Chrome OS or Youtube. This is why the Raspberry Pi Zero 2W is not usually used as a desktop computer. A Raspberry Pi 4 or Pi 400 would be a better choice for that.
No Ethernet (as with the Zero series before).
Currently you have to solder the header yourself, Pi Zero 2 WH
Test points for header RUN and composite TV output
No analog audio output

What is the price of the Raspberry Pi Zero 2W

With a recommended retail price of $15 USD, the Raspberry Pi Zero W 2 is also available in Europe starting at 16 Euros. Matching miniature cases are available for less than 5 euros.