A portable Raspberry Pi is something of a dream that most Pi enthusiasts would desire. The power and availability of the Pi with none of the wires and mess. The latest to attempt this lofty goal is the CutiePi tablet, currently seeking funding via Kickstarter.
Inside the CutiePi tablet is a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3+ Lite which shares the same Broadcom BCM2837B0, Cortex-A53 (ARMv8) 64-bit SoC @ 1.2GHz SoC and 1GB of LPDDR2 SDRAM as the Raspberry Pi 3B+ packed into a SODIMM package. The Compute range of boards are largely used in industrial or embedded applications.
Measuring 213 mm x 176.6 x 12mm (8.38 x 6.95 x 0.47 inch) the tablet comes with an 8 inch IPS touch screen at 1280 x 800 resolution. An internal 5000 mAh Li-Po battery provides power to the tablet, and can be charged via a USB C charger. Wireless connectivity is via 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0. A built in 5 megapixel camera can be used for projects and webcam duties.
A big disappointment is the GPIO, there is a distinct lack of GPIO access. Of the 120 GPIO pins available to the Compute Module , only six are available via a breakout connector.
CutiePi can be used on the go and comes with a handle that doubles as a stand. It can also be used as a “sidekick” when plugged into an external monitor. This will trigger CutiePi to act as a virtual keyboard and trackpad.
CutiePi is compatible with Raspberry Pi OS and comes with its own CutiePi shell, a tablet friendly skin for the operating system.
The project has already doubled its funding goal, but there are still many days remaining. Currently a pledge of $189 is enough to secure a unit.
