Last Updated on August 3, 2025 by pg@petergamma.org
I am prepared for it that Google kills my solution for a cloud free Office on a Google Pixel phone:
Therefore I am already looking for alternatives.
A device with which i had issues: the Raspberry Pad 5 BIGTREETECH 5” touchscreen monitor for Compute module 4 CM4.
This video made me buy the Pad 5
Raspberry Pad 5, with it you can easily build an amazing cyber deck!
Leepspvideo tested it as well:
- I tried to install Raspberry Pi OS, but failed.
- It is tricky, to find the right position for the switches
- Hardly anyone seems to use the the device
- several demos show it as a KlipperScreen
- The Raspberry Pi CM 4 with the Raspberry Pad 5 would in principle be a Pinephone alternative for my purpose, which is Office mobile. I gave up the Pinephone to use with LibreOffice:
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=16614
The Raspberry Pi zero 2 w is to little powerful for LibreOffice. It starts up very slow as shown in the following video:
- The CM 4 would be better
- But Raspberry Pad 5 seem to have no community
- And the 5 inch screen is to small for LibreOffice
CNX Software also tested the Pad 7:
- USB port – Fine. All three USB 2.0 ports have been tested with RF dongles for a mouse and keyboard
- Built-in speaker – OK
- Audio jack – OK tested with a pair of USB-powered speakers
- Ethernet – Works fine at Gigabit Ethernet speed, tested at 936 Mbps with iperf3.
- WiFi – It works, but the signal looks weaker than expected at about 6 meters from a dual-band router and a few walls, and the system would only detect the 2.4GHz SSID. If placed in the same room, the 5GHz SSID was also detected, the WiFi signal was strong, and the connection stable.
- Power button – It will turn on and off the system, but it will not allow for a soft shutdown, it’s just a button that physically turns on and off the power.
- Volume buttons – The volume buttons are working to control the built-in speaker volume, but note it will not show up in the system’s volume. It’s a hardware thing like the power button
- 7 inch should be fine for LibreOffice
- But also this devices seems not to have a community
After my first tests with these BIGTREETECH Pad devices which use the compute module 4 from Raspberry Pi, I did not get to work the Pad 5. And after studying these instruction, the device in principle would be a great pocket computer. But I do not know how much BIGTREETECH invested in the development of these devices. Software installation is tricky, and I failed. So my trust in these compute module 4 devices is gone. I hope Raspberry Pi will increase the RAM of the Raspberry Pi zero 2 w to more ram sooner or later. Then I would eventually choose the zero 2 w instead of the above mentioned solution with the Google Pixel phone.
But since the software which is shown that it runs on these BIGTREETECH devices seem to be very limited, we ask ourselves, if it is difficult to install software on those CM 4 devices:
This reminds of what Chris Titus Tech said about the Pinephone two years ago:
He said in the video, he can t showcase anything with the Pinephone. The Pinephone development has started only a view years ago. And the same applies to the CM 4 modules from Raspberry Pi. On the contrast, the “traditional” Raspberry Pi s which run Raspberry Pi OS have been developed over 10 years. As well as Rasbperry Pi OS which runs on it::