UNO R3 form-factor board built around a 48MHz Renesas RA4M1 with onboard ESP32-S3 Wi-Fi/BLE, USB-C power, Qwiic connector, and a 12x8 LED matrix—ideal for connected prototypes without stacking extra shields.

I leaned hard on the UNO R4 WiFi for a pair of fall workshops, and it still earns its spot as my default connected Uno. The 48MHz Renesas RA4M1 handles sensor sampling while the onboard ESP32-S3 streams data to an MQTT broker over WPA3 without stuttering, and USB-C finally means I can power a breadboard from the same cable as my laptop. The Qwiic connector saved me time in class—students snapped on IMUs and environmental sensors without soldering or jumper spaghetti—and the 12x8 LED matrix made it trivial to show status icons and error states. Libraries that expect AVR registers still need minor tweaks, but the official ArduinoCore-renesas package covers most of the common APIs now. Idle draw is around 90 mA with Wi-Fi on, so it’s not a coin-cell board, yet for mains-powered IoT builds or rapid prototyping the R4 WiFi remains the sweet spot in 2025.

UNO R4 WiFi combines 48MHz Renesas RA4M1 with ESP32-S3 for connected projects. Includes USB-C, Qwiic connector, and 12x8 LED matrix without extra shields.

Arduino UNO R4 WiFi Development Board with ESP32-S3

Arduino UNO R4 WiFi

Starter kit including Raspberry Pi 5, power supply, case, and cooling—everything needed to set up a capable single‑board computer.

CanaKit’s Raspberry Pi 5 Starter Kit PRO has become my go-to recommendation when coworkers want to jump into Pi development without chasing parts. The bundle ships with the 8 GB Pi 5, 27 W USB-C PD supply, active-cooling case, pre-imaged 128 GB microSD, HDMI cables, and even a USB-C power switch—everything you need to boot into Raspberry Pi OS in minutes. The new active cooler is whisper quiet yet keeps the board under 65°C while I run Docker stacks or compile Rust projects, and the case exposes all headers so I can still hook up HATs. I appreciate that CanaKit includes a printed quick-start sheet plus a USB card reader for re-flashing the SD when I experiment with Ubuntu or Home Assistant. You’ll still want peripherals (keyboard, mouse, display), but as a one-box platform for tinkering with GPIO, Kubernetes, or retro emulation, it’s excellent.

Raspberry Pi 5 Starter Kit PRO with Active Cooling

Raspberry Pi 5 Starter Kit PRO

Curated prototyping products we use and recommend. Each item tested in real-world scenarios. Find 2 products with detailed reviews, pros, and cons.

Prototyping Products

Arduino UNO R4 WiFi

Raspberry Pi 5 Starter Kit PRO