New Pi Pico 2 by Raspberry Pi—What are your opinions?

Hey everyone,

Let's look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 that one should consider before arriving at any conclusion:

Advantages first:

1. Dual core, Dual architecture with RISC-V
2. More SRAM, FLASH memory, and clock frequency
3. 1 more PIO which gives us a total of 12 state machines. 4 more than the original
4. Security features
5. Price- just $5
6. 1 more ADC(total 4) and 8 more PWM(total 24) then the original Pico.
7. Supports C/C++, Arduino IDE, Circuitpython and Micropython

Now Disadvantages:

1. Still no USB-C
2. No reset button
3. It would have been better if there was a built-in WiFi chip(link Pico W) if they want to compete with ESP32. But of course, they will sell it separately as a new board and call it Pico 2W. 

Please add to this if you think there are more.

Also, will publish an in-depth article on Pico 2 very soon.
 

Hey, thanks for starting the topic.

The specs on the Pico 2 are pretty impressive, especially with the dual Arm Cortex-M33 or dual Hazard3 processors running at 150MHz. That’s a significant boost over the original, and with 520 KB of on-chip SRAM, it seems like this board is ready to tackle more complex tasks.

Personally, I’ve always appreciated the balance of power and simplicity with the original Pico, but these upgrades might make the Pico 2 a more versatile tool for hobbyists. I’m particularly interested in how the increased memory could improve multitasking on the board. It might even make the Pico 2 a stronger competitor against some of the more expensive microcontrollers out there.

What blew me is the price they are selling it for, just $5 for this, is insane

That said, I’m also curious about power consumption and heat management with these new specs—hopefully, they’ve optimized that. Overall, I think it could be a great upgrade for anyone looking to push their projects further, but I’ll probably wait to see how the community starts using it before diving in

Appreciate the detailed specs, but I’m still not convinced the Pico 2 is worth the hype, at least for most hobbyists. The dual Arm Cortex-M33 or Hazard3 processors at 150MHz and the 520 KB SRAM are great if you’re working on very complex projects, but for basic tinkering, it feels like overkill.

The security features, like optional boot signing and hardware mitigations for fault injection, are robust, but I’m not sure how many hobbyists actually need that level of security. It’s nice to have, but it might add unnecessary complexity for those of us just working on simple projects.

This new version seems geared more toward advanced users, which could alienate those just starting out.

I also wonder if all the additional hardware and processing power could lead to higher power consumption or heat issues. For my purposes, the original Pico is still plenty capable and more in line with what I need. I’ll be sticking with that for now unless I find a specific need that only the Pico 2 can meet.