While it may be the best Raspberry Pi laptop we've seen yet, you'd get a better device by installing Linux on a second-hand laptop off eBay. By separating the electronics learning kit from the laptop, it's lost some of the magic that the CrowPi 2 had. Still, if you want an electronic learning kit based on the Raspberry Pi, and must have it in a laptop format, this is your best option today.

Specifications
  • Operating System: Raspbian
  • CPU: (from Raspberry Pi 4 fitted)
  • Storage: microSD card (dual-boot switching board provided)
  • Battery: 5000mAh
  • Display (Size, Resolution): 11.6", 1366 x 768px
  • Camera: 2MP
  • Memory: (from Raspberry Pi 4 fitted)
  • Network: Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet
  • Weight: 1.1kg
  • Brand: Elecrow
  • Power: USB-C (12V 2A adaptor included)
Pros
  • A good learning package (if you want it in a laptop format)
  • Easy to dual-boot from two microSD cards
Cons
  • Expensive once you factor in the cost of a Raspberry Pi 4
  • Tiny trackpad and plastic-feeling keyboard
  • Small screen makes multitasking tricky
Buy This Product
Elecrow CrowPi L

While it may be the best Raspberry Pi laptop we've seen yet, you'd get a better device by installing Linux on a second-hand laptop off eBay. By separating the electronics learning kit from the laptop, it's lost some of the magic that the CrowPi 2 had.

Still, if you want an electronic learning kit based on the Raspberry Pi, and must have it in a laptop format, this is your best option today.

Specifications
  • Operating System: Raspbian
  • CPU: (from Raspberry Pi 4 fitted)
  • Storage: microSD card (dual-boot switching board provided)
  • Battery: 5000mAh
  • Display (Size, Resolution): 11.6", 1366 x 768px
  • Camera: 2MP
  • Memory: (from Raspberry Pi 4 fitted)
  • Network: Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet
  • Weight: 1.1kg
  • Brand: Elecrow
  • Power: USB-C (12V 2A adaptor included)
Pros
  • A competant Raspberry Pi laptop (if that's what you're after)
  • Good lesson structure for learning Scratch or Python with CrowTail sensor kit
  • Dual-boot microSD card attachment allows you to easily switch between two OSes
Cons
  • Expensive once you factor in the cost of a Raspberry Pi 4 (depending on local prices)
  • The laptop format seems uneccessary
  • Tiny trackpad and plasticky keyboard
Buy This Product
Elecrow CrowPi L

The CrowPi L from Elecrow is the most competent Raspberry Pi laptop yet, and comes preloaded with Python and Scratch tutorials to easily learn hardware programming with the CrowTails sensor kit. But did it need to be a laptop at all, and do you need really want a Raspberry Pi-powered laptop?

CrowPi L Price and Packages

The CrowPi L costs around $200 by itself, but that is just a shell and doesn’t include a Raspberry Pi 4, which is essential for this to work. If you want to add a Raspberry Pi to your Elecrow order, it costs at least another $120 for the 4GB model kit ($150 for 8GB). However, you can source one locally if you can get it cheaper; there's no need to purchase from Elecrow. You don't need another case or power supply, as the CrowPi Li kit includes everything you need except for a Pi board:

  • Laptop body
  • Wireless mouse
  • CrowTail connector board
  • Preloaded SD card
  • USB-C power supply

In addition, it's well worth picking up the Advanced kit, for an additional $50, which includes a complete CrowTail Starter electronics sensor kit, consisting of:

  • Base shield (not used in conjunction with the CrowPi L, but useful if you want to use it later with a bare board)
  • 22 modules (LEDs, switch, moisture sensor, motor, RGB LED, range sensor etc)
  • CrowTail cables
crowpi L pi laptop - crowtail kit close up

CrowPi L Hardware and Installation

Since many of the technical specs of a Raspberry Pi laptop are going to come from the board model you fit in, we won't cover those. Both the 4GB and 8GB models are compatible, and if a new Raspberry Pi 4 is released with the same footprint, it should work fine too.

The CrowPi L screen is a compact 11.6-inch, running at 1366 x 768. That's low by any standard and does somewhat limit your use of the OS to a single application at a time. It's not something you'd want to watch media on, but it's fine for the intended purpose or general web browsing.

crowpi L pi laptop - screen detail wider

The keyboard is quite natty and plasticky, with short key travel. It's functional, but I made far more errors while coding than I'm comfortable with, and I certainly wouldn't want to use this to get any real work done. While there is technically a trackpad, it's absolutely tiny and buried in the top right of the keyboard. You'll almost certainly want to use the included external mouse, which takes up one of the USB ports with its wireless dongle.

crowpi L pi laptop - keyboard and trackpad detail

Alongside the oddly small trackpad, you’ll find a GPIO pin diagram. Dissapointly it doesn't light up to indicate when a pin is active high or low, which would have been great for debugging. Instead, it's literally just a reference sheet between the various pin numbering systems that the Raspberry Pi uses. It's a useful reference nonetheless but could have been much more.

Of course, it wouldn't be a laptop without a battery. 5000mAh provides enough power for around three hours of use, which isn't bad at all. It charges over USB-C.

The CrowPi L features a magnetic latching system which supposedly makes it easier to push fit the Raspberry Pi into the device. However, you still need to screw some parts onto the Pi to make it attach to the magnets, so I fail to see how this is actually beneficial compared to just screwing the Pi directly in.

Actually fitting the Pi into the CrowPi L is quite fiddly due to the various breakout boards that the CrowPi L includes. Firstly, there's the HDMI passthrough to the laptop monitor, as well as the second monitor HDMI port on the side. This board plugs into the side of the Pi, as well as taking up a USB port, and there's a small ribbon cable to delicately attach.

crowpi L pi laptop - construction

Then there's a neat dual boot SD card interface. Although only a single preloaded SD card is supplied, you can fit your own to the second slot and switch between the two with a simple slider.

Finally, there's a fan and GPIO passthrough, as well as another unknown wider ribbon cable that isn't mentioned in the manual, but it's obvious where it should go.

crowpi L pi laptop - pi fitted

Installation is simple enough then, but a fiddly process that you wouldn't entrust your child to do.

CrowPi OS and Learning System

Upon startup, you're greeted by an easy menu system from which to navigate the lesson structure. There are two hardware paths to follow, either using Let'sCode (Elecrow's own Scratch-based drag-and-drop visual programming language); or Python.

crowpi L pi laptop - trying letscode

The Let'sCode lessons are simple enough, but will require supervision. Each lesson introduces the broader context of the technology used, but the text could do with being simplified for the intended audience. Thankfully, the lessons don't strictly check your work or the end results, and only act as a guide, so we were able to use concepts like for-loops earlier than intended to achieve the same result.

crowpi L pi laptop - tutorials list

You're free to experiment as you work through them, and won't be scolded for doing it in a different order. Each tutorial also has a challenge section at the end with less guidance, to test your understanding. The only slight frustration I found was the screen size. Some of the textual elements of the interface (like the Let'sCode debug terminal) are far too small to read, and there's not enough screen real estate to have both the lesson window and the program open at the same time.

crowpi L pi laptop - python coding

Generally, the lessons I tried were compelling, and I came out knowing more than I did going in. As a learning system, it works (I still don't like Python though).

CrowPi L vs CrowPi 2

The CrowPi isn't Elecrow's first attempt at a Raspberry Pi Laptop learning system. When I reviewed the CrowPi 2 back in 2020, I loved the innovative way you had a complete electronics kit embedded underneath the keyboard. It was a true all-in-one device, packed full of learning adventures—even if the Bluetooth keyboard was annoying.

crowpi L pi laptop - crowpi 2 comparison

Perhaps it was just nostalgia for the all-in-one electronics kits from my own childhood though. From a laptop perspective, it obviously makes more sense for the keyboard to be hardwired. But in the transition to a regular laptop plus electronics kit attached on the side, I feel like some of the magic has been lost.

Is This The Raspberry Pi Laptop for You?

As an electronics learning system the CrowPi L is is a great package, but only if you want something specifically in a laptop format. The lesson structure is easy to follow for both LetsCode or Python tutorials, and the CrowTail sensor package gives you a good headstart with hardware programming. There’s definitely something to be said for the tactile nature of actually plugging things in, rather than a ready-made device where you just have to choose the right pin in code.

crowpi L pi laptop - crowtail circuit close up

But when you abstract out the electronics part from the laptop, it does call into question the whole laptop format. The CrowPi 2 was primarily an electronics kit built into a laptop for convenience. The CrowPi L is just a laptop running on a Raspberry Pi, which you can plug an electronics kit into. Yes—it's the best Raspberry Pi laptop we've seen yet, but in the broader computing sense, it's still not a very good laptop.

crowpi L pi laptop - kid learning

For $200, you could buy get something second-hand that's bigger and more powerful, throw Linux on it, then add in the ability to use GPIO with Arduino or similar. The only thing you wouldn't get is the Raspberry Pi OS and lesson structure (though you do get a separate printed book of lessons with the CrowTail sensor kit anyway).

If you're buying this for classroom use or even at home, you don't really need a battery. And you probably already have an old monitor to hook up. You might as well add a bigger, more comfortable keyboard while you're at it, and you're already using an external mouse with CrowPi L. Do you see where I'm going with this? At that point, you don't need the laptop part of the equation.