Introduction to the Raspberry Pi Zero W

A Raspberry Pi is a small, low-cost, credit-card-sized single-board computer that runs a full Linux operating system - it has a CPU, RAM, storage (a microSD card), and I/O, just like a regular desktop, only shrunk down and priced for hobbyists, students, and makers. The Raspberry Pi Zero W is a specific member of that family: the wireless-enabled version of the "Zero" line, which is the smallest and cheapest branch of Raspberry Pi boards. It exists to answer one simple question - what's the least amount of board you need to run Linux and talk to a Wi-Fi network - and the answer is a board roughly the size of a stick of gum.

A Brief History

The very first board in this family, the plain Raspberry Pi Zero, launched in November 2015 as an extremely stripped-down, extremely cheap board with no wireless connectivity at all. It was a hit with makers who wanted a full Linux computer for embedded projects, but the lack of networking meant every project either needed a wired Ethernet adapter or had no network access at all. The Raspberry Pi Zero W arrived in February 2017 to fix exactly that gap - it took the same tiny form factor and added onboard 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, for a modest price and power increase. That single addition is what turned the Zero line from "a neat cheap Linux board" into "a genuinely practical board for headless, network-connected projects."

Why the Zero W Exists

Before the Zero W, if you wanted a Raspberry Pi that could sit somewhere out of the way - inside a wall-mounted enclosure, tucked into a plant pot for a sensor, strapped to a robot - and still be reachable over the network without a physical Ethernet run, you needed a full-size Pi with a USB Wi-Fi dongle sticking out of it, which defeated a lot of the point of using something small in the first place. The Zero W solves that directly: onboard Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in the same postage-stamp footprint as the original Zero, at a price point historically around $10 USD at launch (exact current pricing varies quite a bit by region and availability, so we won't state a precise number here - check current retailer listings for what it actually costs today).

What It's Good For

What It's Not Ideal For