Raspberry Pi 3 in Spain: 45 euros in stores, 35 without VAT

Raspberry Pi 3: 45 euros in stores and 35 excluding VAT at the distributor

A credit card-sized gadget that costs less than two brand-new video games. That was the hook with which the Raspberry Pi 3, the new model of the British board, landed in Spain, and the reason why half the country's tinkerers rushed to check prices. At Raspipc it shows up for just over 44 euros. At the official distributor, RS Online, the board is listed at 35.65 euros. The fine print: that price excludes VAT. With the 21% rate and shipping costs, the bill lands close to 50 euros.

The board comes with built-in WiFi and Bluetooth, two things the previous model didn't include as standard. For emulators, mediacenters and sensor projects, the leap from the Pi 2 is significant. The Cortex A58, say the more technical folks, wipes the floor with the previous generation's A7. The question is no longer whether it's worth it, but where to buy it without getting fleeced on shipping.

The VAT nobody shows in the shop window

According to one commenter, the Raspberry Pi Foundation copied the American habit of advertising prices without taxes. In the United States, the 35 dollars are also before taxes. Here, that turns a 35-euro board into a 50-euro one the moment you hit the checkout. The gap between the sticker price and the real price is about 40%, and that's before counting shipping.

In Spain, the cheapest store found to date is Raspipc, at just over 44 euros. Ordering by mail from the official distributor only makes sense if you buy more than one unit or split the shipping. For a single board, the physical store wins by a landslide.

What is a Raspberry Pi 3 used for?

The practical uses are varied: collecting data with sensors, programming, watching movies and series, building a Kodi mediacenter, playing arcade games with RetroPie. The Raspberry community online is huge and there are guides for almost everything. That's the argument repeated most often: you're not buying hardware, you're buying access to an ecosystem of documentation.

For emulators, the Pi 3 is the cheapest option for the living room. Controllers matter a lot, and the board can pick up commands from the TV remote over HDMI. That said, you have to tinker. No plug-and-play here.

The heat and the background noise

There's one detail worth knowing before buying: according to one user, some Pi 3 units overheat and the automatic throttling doesn't always kick in. So they can exceed 100 degrees. It's advisable to test and, in any case, add a heatsink. This isn't alarmism: it's prevention.

The built-in WiFi works well. Ten meters from the router and through two brick walls, the connection holds up. That said, the board has no VGA output. HDMI only. For older monitors you'll need an HDMI-to-VGA adapter, which costs next to nothing.

The alternative that isn't a Raspberry

Some argue that for 100 euros a mini PC with Windows 10 is better. Far more powerful. The usual counterargument weighs against it: try controlling half a dozen sensors and some motors with a mini PC. The Raspberry doesn't compete on power, it competes on GPIO, power consumption and size.

Another alternative is Android TV. For 35 euros on a Chinese website you get a media player with Kodi preinstalled and multiple add-ons included. For watching movies without complications, Android TV wins. For tinkering, the Pi wins.

The Pi Zero and the scarcity game

The Raspberry Pi Zero is sold out everywhere. Production lines have been dedicated to making the Pi 3. Production of the Zero is supposed to resume after the launch, but nobody is giving dates. And when it does arrive, there's a one-unit-per-customer limit. That scares off anyone who wants to build even a moderately serious project.

The Zero has a single USB port. For WiFi you need an adapter or a hub, which costs more than the board itself. Some people prefer to attach a mini USB hub to connect more things. For advanced automation projects, the Zero would be perfect if it had WiFi out of the box. It doesn't.

The advice that keeps coming up: image the card and go

To set up Kodi, the sensible thing is to download a preconfigured SD image. There are guides worth a thousand times more than any homemade tutorial. One tip: don't try skins until you have the system configured to your liking. Once everything works, make an image of the SD card and save it on your computer. Then you can experiment.

Dietpi is a minimal distribution based on Raspbian that lets you install optimized software and services. It performs well and makes configuration easy. For a mediacenter, some prefer Peine: it flies and gives no trouble. The AikonCWD image, on the other hand, has disappointed more than one person: Kodi running on Raspbian is painfully slow compared to Peine and ends up failing.

Brexit and the future price

With the Brexit issue, the question is whether it will affect Raspberry prices. The board is manufactured in the UK and sold in euros. A sharp exchange rate shift could move the bill. Nobody knows yet. What is known is that the Pi 3 remains the cheapest option for your living room if what you want is to emulate old consoles without paying the endless DLCs of today's consoles.

The puzzling figure: 35.65 euros excluding VAT. 44 in stores. 50 with shipping. And even so, it's still the cheapest gadget for building a mediacenter or an arcade machine in the living room.