The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B looks identical to the Pi 2 B at first glance. It is the same size and has much of the same components on board. So what is the difference? The new Pi 3 brings more processing power and on-board connectivity, saving you time with the development of your applications. Perfect for your Internet of Things (IoT) designs.

Pi 3 compared to Pi 2

More processor speed. The CPU on the Pi 3 is one and a half times faster at 1.2 GHz. Your Pi board performs better.

On-board connectivity. The Pi 3 features 802.11 b/g/n Wireless LAN and Bluetooth Classic & Low Energy (BLE). You can get connected much quicker without the need for any external device.

2.5 A power supply. With more processor speed and on-board connectivity, you'll need more power. Power supplies for previous Pi boards will not be sufficient. You will need the Official Raspberry Pi Power Supply.

New components. The Pi 3 features a chip antenna where status LEDs were located previously. The status LEDs are still on the board, right next to the microSD card slot.

New to Raspberry Pi?
The Raspberry Pi is a single computer board — developed to encourage and aid the teaching of programming and computing. It is also a fantastic starting point for the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) projects. The low cost and 'plug and play' nature of Pi makes for a board that is accessible to all and has numerous connectivity options. Pi is the perfect experimental tool, whether you want to use it as a desktop computer, media centre, server or monitoring/security device within your home. No limits. Linux-based operating systems run on the Pi with plenty of access to free software and downloads. What is more, there is a great Pi community out there — look at DesignSpark, the design engineer community at RS.

•Broadcom BCM2837 chipset running at 1.2 GHz
•64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53
•802.11 b/g/n Wireless LAN
•Bluetooth 4.1 (Classic & Low Energy)
•Dual core Videocore IV® Multimedia co-processor
•1 GB LPDDR2 memory
•Supports all the latest ARM GNU/Linux distributions and Windows 10 IoT
•microUSB connector for 2.5 A power supply
•1 x 10/100 Ethernet port
•1 x HDMI video/audio connector
•1 x RCA video/audio connector
•4 x USB 2.0 ports
•40 GPIO pins
•Chip antenna
•DSI display connector
•microSD card slot
•Dimensions: 85 x 56 x 17 mm

The Raspberry Pi 3 has an identical form factor to the previous Pi 2 (and Pi 1 Model B+) and has complete compatibility with Raspberry Pi 1 and 2.