I wonder if we'll ever see the current-gen Raspberry Pi return to the $35 price?

I suppose there's still room for a 1GB model, but I doubt that cutting the RAM down by 1GB will knock $15 off the BOM, and it sounds like they're already scrimping elsewhere on the $50 2GB model.

A key issue I have with that $50 price point is that it's never $50. You need a power supply and an SD card, so it's at least $70.

And if you want something better than atrocious storage performance (random I/O performance) you need A1/A2 cards and they are still order of magnitudes slower than SSD/NVME.

So then you buy an NVME hat and select a NVME SSD instead of an SD card and now we are at $90 at least?

And we haven't talked about a case yet. Another $10?

So depending on your needs, it's probably closer to $100 than $50. And at that price point, a second-hand computer - depending on your needs - may be a better, more performant choice. And those 1L pcs can often do idle ~5 watt which is close to the Pi4/5.

I was just getting excited to order one then I read your comment.

I don’t want to spend $100 on this.

It's 50 if you are upgrading from an older model since you have most of the components already.

I agree with you but the Raspberry Pi's USP is the GPIO interfacing capability and the community surrounding it. You don't get these things with a second hand computer.

That might be the reality today, but they are still trading on the "cheap computer for the masses" momentum of yesterday. They should be judged on whether what they produce meets what they sell.