The nearest thing to a Raspberry Pi laptop is now cheaper for Black Friday

We love the Raspberry Pi but there are times when it becomes a chore to connect up the HDMI cable, USB devices and power. What if we could have a laptop-like interface that does it all? Well the Elecrow CrowView Note is that, and now it can be found for a low price this Black Friday!

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Elecrow CrowView Note: was $199, now $169 at Amazon
With a great 14-inch IPS 1080P display, the Elecrow CrowView Note is a great screen that just happens to have a 5000mAh battery and a decent keyboard and trackpad. It comes with an adapter for the Raspberry Pi 5, and there are optional adapters for the Nvidia Jetson. However, the connections are all standard USB and HDMI, so as long as you have cables for those ports, you can connect anything.

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CrowView Note Specifications

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The "laptop" is lightweight at just over 2.5 pounds. A large portion of the weight is the 5000mAh battery and screen. The chassis may be plastic, but it is robust enough for the maker space, workshop, and your work bag.

The keyboard and trackpad are "good enough." I wouldn't sit and write an entire review on it, but for hacking around and making projects, it does the job.

If you've not got a Raspberry Pi or Nvidia Jetson, then the Elecrow CrowView Note can be used as a second screen for a laptop. In our review we connected a Lenovo X390 and Ubuntu 24.04 detected and used the CrowView Note as a second screen, and as a second keyboard and trackpad.

Battery life is around 2 hours 20 minutes, enough for most projects, or for a change of scenery when working.

The 14-inch IPS display is bright and produces a sharp and clear image, which for 99% of us will get the job done. The screen has a maximum refresh rate of 60Hz and is AMD Freesync compatible, so if you were to use the display for gaming, you should get decent performance.

The Elecrow CrowView Note offers a neat means to create a portable Raspberry Pi setup. We no longer have to hack our own solutions using Motorola Lapdocks and a myriad of cables. Just like I did when I was part of the Raspberry Pi Foundation's Picademy training program.