This weekend, a friend of mine showed off their RetroPi setup along with their mad skills in Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts and Yoshi’s Cookie. I wonder how well they’d do if they had to switch from a full TV to a tiny screen that would make a modern smartphone blush? I mean, $40 is all it would take for me to disguise a cruel joke as a gift, and I’m tempted.

If you’re actually looking to use this thing for a project instead of a mean-spirited gaming handicap, then you’ll probably be doing so for some kind of small gadget or monitor. The Raspberry Pi’s 5-inch 1280×720 touchscreen (spotted by Tom’s Hardware) is perfect for that, mounting directly on the bottom of a Pi and featuring a 5-point multitouch panel. It’s powered directly from the Pi’s GPIO with just 5 volts, so it won’t take up one of your precious USB ports. A few simple settings in rasp-config is all it takes to get it all working.

The new version of the screen shares almost all the same specifications as the 7-inch model (which has now been around for 10 years, wow) with the obvious exception of its size, and it’s compatible with all full-sized Pi models going back to the B+. It’s not especially impressive in terms of its panel, with a viewing angle of just 80 degrees and a rather chunky bezel. But for a standalone controller or some neat little project gadget that sits on your desk, it’s pretty darn cool.

Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer, PCWorld