Best Raspberry Pi Starter Kits

The CanaKit Raspberry Pi 4 Starter Kit is an excellent package. There are no bells and whistles here. That being said, the kit is comprehensive and complete enough to make various projects work.

First things first, the premium-quality ABS 3-piece plastic case is flexible and rugged enough to protect, support, and sustain the hardware. The case has been specifically designed for the Raspberry Pi 4 with GPIO access. The high-gloss case looks about as sleek as these Raspberry cases get.

Plus, the case comes equipped with this integrated fan mount that will be able to streamline building the setup. At the same time, the case does not allow for using the pins, so there are some limitations here.

The company's low-noise fan, on the other hand, will be able to keep the system nice and cool without producing too much noise.

What we're really excited about though is the PiSwitch. The switch lets you easily manage/manipulate the power supply for the entire system. You can quickly turn everything on and off. Plus, there's also this convenient LED indicator on the switch that tells you whether the system is working or not.

Also, the switch incorporates the same high-gloss finish, bringing aesthetics to the table too. Its high-quality build minimizes electrical resistance, which is crucial because low-quality in-line switches are prone to creating high electrical resistance and reduced voltage.

The CanaKit Raspberry Pi 3 Ultimate Starter Kit delivers on the "ultimate" premise more than any kit we've looked at. There's so much here crammed into the kit that the price makes very little sense. Of course, first comes the case. The see-through case is not necessarily as elegant and attractive as its competition from the same company that we've reviewed here.

At the same time, it is arguably much more practical. As the see-through part implies, the case will let you easily put things together and see what's working and which part should be replaced.

The supplied 32-gigabyte microSD memory card comes pre-loaded with the NOOBS software and operating system, so you'll be able to load info quickly and easily. The 2.5A MicroUSB power supply features a surprisingly effective noise filter that keeps the system running quiet, while the 5-feet USB cable will let you design various projects without errors.

As it is usually the case, the system has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 incorporated into the onboard circuitry, so you won't have to attach Wi-Fi/Bluetooth dongles to the board.

There are also four USB ports that will let you connect various devices to the system.

The supplied hardware is pretty standard, including the quad-core ARM Cortex A53 running at 1.2 GHz and 1-gigabyte RAM.

The Vilros Raspberry Pi 3 Kit is not as complete as its CanaKit competition. You will have to purchase multiple extra components to make the system flexible enough for various tasks. At the same time, the platform has its advantages too. First off, the transparent case looks pretty sleek.

The case keeps all the ports accessible, lets you view the contents, and makes sure to protect these contents without making interactions with the system more difficult than they should be. Also, you can attach this case to walls and even various displays' back panels, keeping the platform accessible yet ensuring that you're not sacrificing precious space.

Hardware-wise, the quad-core ARM Cortex A53 1.2 GHz CPU is standard as far as these Raspberry Pi platforms go. The same can be said about the 1-gigabyte RAM stick. Needless to say, these components won't let you run multiple demanding apps simultaneously. However, these hardware pieces will be enough to develop various prototypes, implement different solutions, and realize varying simple projects.

The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Complete Starter Kit will be able to do more than you'd expect considering its hardware. Sure, the hardware is not necessarily bad. The quad-core ARM Cortex A53 CPU runs at 1.2 GHz, which is more or less standard as far as Raspberry PI kits are concerned. The 1-gigabyte RAM stick won't let you manipulate large databases.

Of course, you won't be able to comfortably manage high-res images using apps like Photoshop. You will, however, be able to run large and complex spreadsheets, which is pretty impressive considering these kits' basic architecture.

More often than not, what separates these so-called "complete" and "universal" starter kits from basic kits is the supplied components. First and foremost, the separation exists here courtesy of the 32-gigabyte microSD card that will let you store various data. At the same time, the card comes pre-loaded with NOOBS software that streamlines the platform's interactions with different apps and lets you quickly load information.

Having said that, you can install pretty much whatever operating system you want (except for the latest macOS and Windows versions since those require much beefier hardware compared to what this platform houses).

The CanaKit Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Starter Kit is, in most ways, the most basic kit within this lineup. It is far from basic though compared to most starter kits. In fact, the kit is less basic and more incomplete than the bundles on this list.

The package comes without an HDMI cable, which is nothing to cry about though since you can always purchase those separately, these cables are available everywhere and cost pennies.

The fact that the platform is not fitted with an SD card's a shame though. Considering the bundle's price, you'd think that the people behind it would make sure to add the standard 32-gigabyte microSD storage solution, but they haven't. Again, these are not expensive and you can purchase these cards pretty much anywhere and everywhere but that's somewhat beside the point.

Of course, the kit has its strengths too, otherwise, we would've easily been able to replace this product with a different starter kit.

First and foremost, the Wi-Fi module that the platform is packing is superb, supporting the latest 802.11b/g/n/ac wireless protocols, so you'll be able to utilize the most stable and reliable connection even with the router located far from the system.

The updated 4.2 Bluetooth module is excellent too, letting you quickly copy and paste data and comfortably use various wireless devices.