Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ vs Google Coral

Thanks to a new thermal management plate (heat spreader), as well as better voltage regulation, the CPU gained a nice little 200 MHz bump in clock speed over the Pi 3 Model B. Applications on the Pi 3 B+ are a little faster and snappier than their predecessor.

What really sets the Raspberry Pi apart from the competition, and makes it leagues apart from every other SBC out there, it the software and support you get from every corner of the ecosystem regarding anything you want to make, build or do with the Pi. The most up-to-date kernels, the widest supported bundles, hats for every occasion, step-by-step instructions, and if you're trying something and get stuck, chances are high someone else has got stuck at the same spot, got past it, and left detailed instructions on how to get past it so nobody ever gets stuck there again. That is the best feature of the Raspberry Pi.

Because of the Gigabit ethernet (although still sharing the USB 2.0 bus which limits its speed ceiling), it goes up to 3x faster than the original Pi 3 Model B. The new wireless chip supports 802.111ac, which also increases its throughput to 3x as well. Bluetooth 4.2 LE is much more stable, and it's just a nice little upgrade.

The various addons boards means this is the board to go with for starters into development. Without much knowledge you can get a project up and running in a short amount of time.

Google Coral boards include a heatsink and a fan to ensure the MXU and the SoC are within optimal temperatures.

Unlike Raspberry Pi and some boards, Google Coral has a built in 8GB eMMC flash storage. Perfect if you want to flash another distro or if micro SDs are too unreliable.

Google Coral SBCs are designed primarily for AI and ML in the edge. Each board carries a Edge TPU - a smaller version of Google's own ASIC chips used to power Google AI.