A very small point, but pulling from a feather form factor BOM to compare.
$0.12 for microUSB female connector (rated 1A)
$0.26 for a USB-C female (rated 3A). Needs 2 x resistors (< $0.01), 20% larger board area
I think the power capabilities are the biggest item. If you want to pull higher current from a laptop for development or supply from a wall, you have to switch to USB-C.
I don't think either of these prices are that aggressive - pretty sure the cost comes down at volume.
I wonder if it would be worthwhile for them to produce both. Well, it will be hard to compare because the design cost doesn’t show up in the BOM, haha.
But it seems like it would be useful nowadays, since some laptop have mostly USB-C connectors, and USB-C to USB-C is pretty common. I’ve never seen a C to Micro. Do they even exist?
I have an unfair bias because I design PCBs as a significant part of my job, and switching out to USB on this board appears to be a non-issue.
I have a Pico in front of me, and there's plenty of room there for a USB-C footprint and the two 5.1k resistors. Given that, I cannot reasonably agree that the "design" stage is significant.
In other words, it's a change that I would make to my own board in 2-5 minutes because the stakes are low. My ballpark guess is that such a change at RPi would have to go through a proposal stage, a PCB change review, and then there would be dozens of places to update documentation.
Since backwards compatibility is non-optional, this would result in a separate SKU, which means that the whole distribution chain needs to be updated with a new product.
So, I acknowledge that when you're working at their scale any change like this is the definition of non-trivial. What I don't agree with is the conclusion that it's not still clearly the right thing to do.
Comparing an RP2350 to the ESP32 family (which is broad) is very much apples to oranges; they each have feature sets which make them ideal for completely different use cases.
I just got ESP32 C6 on a custom board, with micro python it pretty much made all RPi's obsolete for a quarter of price for I2C, GPIO, UART, SPI communication while having WiFi 6 and BLE.
There is no more use case for RPi if I can have ESP32 C6 for $10 - maybe I have to do some soldering on my own.
Then if I need a minicomputer I'd rather go with MinisForum PC that is in price range of RPi and if I need I2C or GPIO I can pair it with ESP32 like as many as I want ESP32 instead of single one like RPi. Then communicate over wireless as much as I want with BLE or WiFi.
Also, could you confirm that the RP2350 consumes 2-3x less power when idling?
If you have the contact details for any certification labs that don't charge extra for radio modules even if you're not using them in your product, that'd be super helpful as well.
It's not a question of "unnecessary". You just don't like it when someone points out that you're making shallow statements and you don't even realize it.
When you frame two MCUs intended for different purposes as competition, you're completely missing why there are so many different useful MCU families in the first place.
If you need a programmable IO state machine (or twelve) then you need the RP2350, period. It's a feature that enables entire domains of functionality that wouldn't otherwise be possible. For example, I'm using it to perform a real-time 12 output MIDI THRU that doesn't tax the CPU cores. Nothing like that exists on the ESP32 family.
The good reason is that there are plenty of third party boards that already offer what you want. There’s very little to be gained by an ‘official’ one. The next one probably should have C, if just because it is the Euro standard, but no urgent need to backport.
I don't need a Pico or any other 3rd party board. I drop SC-1511/12s packages on my PCBs as needed.
What I am saying is that the reference board for an RP2350 should have a USB-C port in 2026. It's not aesthetics or even convenience (and it's definitely not price) so much as establishing best practices for how a part should be used.
A big part of that is to acknowledge the context in which a part exists, and in this case, it's both a fact and a very good thing that the world has embraced USB-C. It's even being regulated in many cases.
I'm not saying that you can't smoke, just that maybe you shouldn't do it when you're volunteering as a Big Brother.
While we're at it, their reference board also doesn't have a reset button, it just has one for boot. It's perhaps one of the most inconvenient official dev boards I've ever used in modern times.
I cannot fathom why USB-C would make any difference. It's not like USB-C is intrinsically better for this use case? If you're doing hardware development, your desk is likely full of in-development crap anyway and a micro USB cable more or less won't make any difference whatsoever, nor is the Pico likely to the only thing needing a micro USB cable.
Edit: one thing I can think of where micro USB connectors are better: if you broke off the connector, it's much easier to solder it back on.
Micro USB is relatively brittle and can only be inserted in one direction. It means you have to make sure you have the old cable for this one thing. There's no USB-PD and you can't do USB host mode.
USB-C is the opposite of all those cons: much more durable, not directionally opinionated, you can use one cable for everything, you can do USB host and USB-PD.
It's also clearly the future everything is standardizing on. There's value in embracing that, since it is a Reference Board.
For what it's worth there are third-party rp2350 boards with USB-C connectors if that's important to you. Heck, WaveShare has one with two USB-C connectors: https://www.waveshare.com/rp2350-usb-c.htm
I do think that you're missing my point, which is that we're significantly past the point in this wretched timeline where they should offer a USB-C version of the reference board for this MCU.
Oh, no, I'm with you. The fewer connector types we have to use, the better. My comment was meant as an FYI for you or anyone else who wasn't aware and not as a dismissal of your valid criticism.
They probably just bought a shit ton of micro USB connectors back in the day and want to use them up, or something silly like that. It would be funny if the EU forced them to switch to USB-C.
It's not $0.50 extra. It's $0.16 extra for a USB-C port assuming you bought the USB-C port on mouser at 10k quantities and threw the micro USB port away.
I just don't get it. Anyone who wants to save a few pennies just buys the chip directly. Their Pico board is primarily for prototyping and one off products, where quality of life is everything and 16 cents is nothing. The adapter cable probably costs more than the amount they saved. That's a dick move.
i understand that if they implement a port, it is usually well done (besides the unfortunate 27.1w 5a bs for the rpi5). so unlike cheapo electronics that do come with barely working type c.
however, while in one hand we are happy to (albeit temporarily) raise prices based on ram situation, in terms of design, there is simply not enough money for the port. especially when now they are adding ecosystem items that do cost money to develop and maintain.
this explanation made sense pre-ipo but no longer imho.
You can at least buy USB-C boards from other vendors since they sell the rp2040/rp2350 separately. If you want wifi it gets a little more complicated unfortunately.
Unpopular opinion but I actually enjoy using USB Micro B more than USB-C. That's because USB-C is much more complicated and there're non-standard-compliant cables floating in the market. USB-C also has some fancy mode like voltage selection. If it got screwed up somehow leading it to supply the wrong voltage, it could fry your Pico board.
I seriously cannot fathom being someone doing development who wouldn't pay $0.50 extra to purge the last micro USB from their desktop.