Since its release nearly six years ago, the Raspberry Pi has been one of the hottest budget-friendly computers on the market. Featuring a single-board computer, it’s designed to help aspiring coders and computer technicians learn the ropes of the trade. The Raspberry Pi is a traditional computer, however. Rather, it features a very basic design, as shown in the image above. But the Raspberry Pi is now even better thanks to the introduction of a new case that features a built-in touchscreen display.
As reported by TechRadar, the China-based retailer Banggood has released an innovative new case for the Raspberry Pi. With a price tag of $15.99, it’s not the cheapest Raspberry Pi on the market, but it offers a unique feature that’s not found elsewhere: touchscreen functionality.
The new case, which hasn’t been given an official name yet, supports several Raspberry Pi models, including the 2B, 3B and 3+ plus. While it’s designed to protect the Raspberry Pi from damage, it also features an integrated touchscreen. Reports show that the exterior of the new Raspberry Pi case features a 3.5-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) touchscreen. Using this touchscreen, users can control their Raspberry Pi just like a smartphone or tablet computer.
The touchscreen interface used with the new case is capacitive, so like other capacitive touchscreens, it won’t work while wearing gloves. You must use the case with a bare, ungloved finger. Otherwise, it won’t register your touch commands. The only exception is if you have a special pair of capacitive gloves, which are designed to work with capacitive touchscreen devices like the interface found on the new Raspberry Pi case.
There are other touchscreen interfaces with which the Raspberry Pi is compatible. Currently, however, all these touchscreen devices are connected and used externally. This is the only case for the Raspberry Pi that features a built-in touchscreen interface, so it could become a gamer changer for the micro-sized computer.
Of course, the case’s touchscreen doesn’t offer the best image. Its small size restricts the resolution to just 320 x 480 pixels. Nonetheless, the ability to control a Raspberry Pi by tapping icons on the outside of a case is a welcome feature that many users are sure to appreciate.
According to Wikipedia, the Raspberry Pi has become the third best-selling computer in the world, racking up more than 19 million units sold. With the introduction of a new touchscreen case, sales for the small, barebones computer will likely rise even further in the months and years to come.
