For those who don't read through the specs, it uses Gateron KS-33 low-profile 'blue' switches (though the plastic on the Pi 500+ switches is grey, not blue).
In my testing, the keyboard was between 55-60 dBa from about a foot away. Not quiet, but so much better to type on than the Pi 400/500's chicklet keyboard that came before.
It's a mid-tier mechanical keyboard with low-end desktop performance. So it's not going to move the needle if you're satisfied with an N150 mini PC and a cheap keyboard. But if you were already thinking of buying a Pi, or you like the keyboard-computer aesthetic, this is now the top-end for that (especially considering the 16 GB of RAM).
Ack. I got one of these things and they are HORRIBLE.
1. It would be very nice if there was anything in the box with a pointer to setup instructions (since it's obvious setting up the 500+ is different than setting up previous models.) A QR code, a URL, a printed manual. Anything. But I can use DuckDuckGo and found a couple of third-party sites and a few YouTube videos. I tried piecing together the process. It would be great if the Raspberry Pi team would make a simple web page that tells you things like:
a. Where do I download the image for the Pi 500+ (since the stock 2025-05-13 image doesn't work for the 500+.)
b. I only have one monitor, which HDMI port to I use?
c. Every other machine I've had, you can plug a mouse into the USB 3 port. I mean, you probably want to save that port for a peripheral that can use the extra speed, but it should work. Is this true for the 500+? Will I destroy the machine if I plug the mouse into the blue USB ports? I'm embarrassed I have to ask this since any other machine I wouldn't worry about it, but the out-of-the-box experience is so bad, I've lost faith in the Pi organization to make anything that works, much less performs well.
2. I needed a display so I figured I would buy a Pi branded monitor. At least this thing came with an insert that told me it wouldn't work without an external power supply. Could you have put that on the web site so I would have known to purchase an extra power supply? No problem, I have several around the house.
But... what does it mean when I plug everything together and the monitor power LED blinks red, then turns of and then nothing happens. I verified the monitor works by plugging it into a different machine, but shouldn't it work with the RasPi 500+??? I'm missing something here and it's not in the documentation.
3. I finally got the 500+ turned on and generating a picture. It stops on the "booting from SD card," the display flashes and then it says "waiting for network. connect ethernet cable." I have to connect via an ethernet cable to configure it? You mean the OS image on the SD card doesn't know how to configure the device?
This thing is NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME. I'm going to see if I can return this one cause after several hours of fiddling, I can't get the Pi to drive the Pi monitor (but the Pi will drive an Asus monitor I have in the lab and my "regular form factor" Pi 5 can drive the monitor. There's something screwy going on here and there's no documentation describing how to setup the 500+.)
Save your money. Wait several months for them to get the kinks out.
I got the monitor to work. Turns out you CAN'T drive it with a Pi 500+, even though the insert in the monitor box says you can, but at lower brightness settings. (I turned the brightness all the way down and tried powering it from the 500+ but no dice.) If you get one of these, you will DEFINITELY require an external power supply, at least if you're using it with a 500+. I'm using the (I think) 95w power supply from an old MacBookPro, seems to drive the monitor like a champ.
Though as best I can tell, the keyboard is quite nice. If I can't return it, I'll probably rip it apart and try to graft it onto the Pi 400 I have downstairs.
Hmm... tried editing the original post, but no love.
Turns out it was a pair of bad video cables. I swapped in the video cable from the "normal" form factor RasPi 5 I bought a few months ago and everything works fine.
I still think there should be a piece of paper in the box that says "plug the cable in THIS HDMI micro port," but everything else seems to work. The keyboard is quite nice. Not as good as my IBM Model M, but what is?
The CanaKit support guys were quick, polite and pointed me towards several decent debugging steps, but they are selling HDMI cables that don't work with the 500+ (or the RasPi 5 I have downstairs.) And I thought I was buying an official RasPi power supply, but I looked back at the order and sure enough it was the cut-rate CanaKit branded wall-wart. The power supply was on me, I didn't look closely enough when ordering. But the bad cables are on them. I can't really recommend purchasing from them when there are other options where you can buy working accessories.
But... moral of the story is... a bad video cable can make the system look like something weirder and worse is going on. I should have known to test the simplest thing first, but I had to trudge downstairs, move a bit of equipment to get to where the good cables were. So I guess there's an additional moral which is "always have a known good video cable handy."
If it's just the keyboard appearance itself piquing your interest, you might check out the Keychron K3 (the brand has apparently grown a lot since I was last shopping around for keyboards, so it looks like they have a "K", "K Pro", and "K QMK" as well as several other "[Insert Letter Here]" lines of models now... back then all they had were K keyboards).
To clarify, this is to say I'm looking on their website right now and seeing at least five variants of "K3" alone.
It's hard to tell when all the promotional photos are showing either a partial shot or an aggressive angle, but it looks so much like my K3 that I actually thought they were going to say they collaborated with Keychron on the design.
Yep I second this. I have a K1 (I think) with blue switches. The switches are the most important choice - since that controls the entire feel of using the keyboard. When I first got mine, I got red switches. But red switches don’t give you any tactile feedback when it passes the threshold to be considered “pressed”. I swapped to blues and I love them. Very satisfyingly clicky. They’re a bit loud though. Swapping switches is easy - I think the replacement set of blues just set me back $20 or something.
If there are any computer shops you can go in person to try them out, I highly recommend it. They make a lot of different switches and the feel is a very tactile, personal thing. (Though I think I’d also be happy with yellow or brown switches after some time with them!)
I have plenty of decent external keyboards about. I usually have to make my own. Keychrons are pretty decent except for the difficulty of updating the firmware and having to pay extra for proper back-lighting on some models.
The whole device pegs my nostalgia meter. It's almost like a C64, but it has a decent OS and now it has a better keyboard than the C64 ever had.
Though it would be a decent standalone keyboard if they updated the 'Pi Keyboard' design (one of their oldest products) with this top case, and with a USB 3 hub integrated into it. Price would have to be in the sub-$100 range to be interesting, though.
