Raspberry Pi Screens from Aliexpress…

So since I mentioned that I shop on ali and dx, etc, I wanted to write a review on some cheap screens I picked up. They’re a pain. You have to use the image that is supplied with them-it’s extremely hard getting the drivers and whatnot to work properly, and trusting a lone image from a Chinese site is shaky, at best. I spent a good week testing out different combinations to get a screen working for the rpi I have, and in the end I just went with the image that I found, through much digging, and it worked. Does it work well? Um…..

The refresh rate is ok, fast enough for some things, not fast enough for others. The touch screen responds well. It’s a mixed bag. For a small device, or something you need that needs a touch screen, then go for it. For just general computing, it’s a little touchy. The screen is small-mine is 3.5 inches, so it doesn’t offer that much real estate to make it compelling. If you can use it to set somethings off, or control things with a few touches, it’s great. Otherwise, I end up ssh’ing into the machine and doing any commands necessary there. I suppose I’ll make a custom launcher for it and buttons, but at the moment I don’t have full use for it, so it sits on my electronics desk. It’s a little fragile-be aware, I took it on a trip and threw it into some things. I think I’ve damaged it-I’m not totally sure but I have some ghosting going on that I don’t remember there before. It was cheap, so I guess I’m not out too much, but it’s a little disheartening to get it finally working and then damage it. Oh well.

Anyway, unless you have a very specific reason to use one, stay away. There’s lots of better options out there, and unless you just want to be cool, use something else.