Raspberry Pi Pico 2 and the RP2350: What's New and Getting Started

The original Raspberry Pi Pico and its RP2040 chip have been a fixture on this site's parts lists since launch — our Pico first-steps guide and Pico vs. Arduino comparison both cover it in depth. The Pico 2, built around the newer RP2350 chip, is a genuinely different piece of silicon rather than a speed bump — a new dual-architecture core, more RAM, hardware security features, and PIO improvements that change what's practical on a $5 microcontroller board. This guide covers what's actually new, how to get started, and where the Pico 2 is worth the small price premium over the original.

RP2040 vs. RP2350: What Actually Changed

RP2040 (original Pico)RP2350 (Pico 2) CPU coresDual Arm Cortex-M0+ @ 133MHzDual Arm Cortex-M33 @ 150MHz, OR dual Hazard3 RISC-V cores — selectable at boot, a genuinely unusual design choice SRAM264KB520KB — roughly double, meaningful for larger buffers, audio processing, or more complex state machines Flash (on the Pico W-style board)2MB4MB on the Pico 2 PIO (Programmable I/O) blocks2 blocks, 4 state machines each3 blocks, 4 state machines each — more parallel custom peripheral logic available Security featuresNoneArm TrustZone, signed boot, and hardware-enforced privilege separation — relevant for products shipping firmware you don't want easily dumped or modified Floating pointSoftware-emulated onlyHardware single-precision FPU on the Cortex-M33 cores — meaningfully faster for DSP-style or floating-point-heavy code Price~$4~$5

The dual-architecture switch is the single most unusual thing here: the RP2350 physically contains both Cortex-M33 (Arm) and Hazard3 (RISC-V, Raspberry Pi's own open-source core design) processor cores, and which pair is active is chosen at boot via a configuration setting, not a hardware strap you set once. In practice, almost everyone will run the Arm cores — that's where the mature toolchain, existing library ecosystem, and both Arduino IDE and MicroPython support currently live. The RISC-V option exists mainly for embedded developers specifically interested in open-source core architectures or avoiding Arm's licensing entirely; it works, but with a noticeably smaller software ecosystem behind it today.

Board Variants

Pico 2 — the base board, no wireless, same form factor and pinout as the original Pico (not the Pico W).
Pico 2 W — adds the same Infineon WiFi/Bluetooth radio used on the Pico W, for projects needing wireless without stepping up to a full ESP32.

Pin-for-pin, the Pico 2 is compatible with existing Pico projects and carrier boards built for the original — same 40-pin 0.1" header layout, same castellated-edge footprint for boards designed to reflow-solder a Pico directly. Existing hardware designs built around the original Pico generally drop a Pico 2 in without rework.

Getting Started

Arduino IDE. Install the Raspberry Pi Pico/RP2040 board package (the Earle Philhower or official Arduino core, both support RP2350) through the Boards Manager, select "Raspberry Pi Pico 2" as the board, and hold BOOTSEL while connecting via USB for the first flash — the same workflow as the original Pico.
MicroPython. Download the RP2350-specific UF2 firmware build from the official MicroPython downloads page (RP2040 and RP2350 firmware images are NOT interchangeable — using the wrong one will fail to boot or behave unpredictably), hold BOOTSEL while plugging in USB, and drag the UF2 file onto the RPI-RP2 mass storage device that appears, exactly like flashing the original Pico.
CircuitPython. Also supported, with its own RP2350-specific build — see our CircuitPython getting started guide for the general workflow, which applies the same way to Pico 2 once you're using the correct firmware build for the chip.
Confirm which core architecture you're targeting. Most toolchains default to the Arm Cortex-M33 cores, which is the right choice for nearly everyone — you'd have to specifically opt into the RISC-V build, so unless you know you want it, the defaults are fine.

Where the Pico 2 Actually Matters Over the Original

Audio and signal processing. The hardware FPU and doubled RAM make FFT-based audio analysis, filtering, and synthesis noticeably more capable than on the RP2040, which had to emulate floating point in software — a meaningful upgrade for anything in the spirit of this site's ESP32 audio projects, adapted to Pico.
More complex PIO-driven peripherals. The extra PIO block means more room for custom protocol bit-banging (driving unusual displays, decoding uncommon serial protocols, generating precise timing-critical signals) without running out of state machines partway through a design.
Larger buffers and data structures. 520KB of RAM changes what's comfortable to hold in memory at once — larger lookup tables, bigger circular buffers for sensor logging, more headroom before you're fighting memory fragmentation in MicroPython.
Products needing basic firmware protection. TrustZone and signed boot are squarely aimed at anyone building something they intend to sell or deploy where casual firmware dumping/modification is a concern — not relevant for most one-off hobby projects, but a real capability gap the original Pico simply didn't have.

When the Original Pico (or Pico W) Is Still the Right Choice

For straightforward GPIO, sensor-reading, and simple control projects — the bulk of what shows up in maker projects — the original RP2040 Pico remains perfectly capable and is usually a few cents cheaper. The Pico 2 earns its place specifically when a project is RAM-constrained, needs real floating-point performance, wants a third PIO block, or benefits from the security features — otherwise it's a safe drop-in upgrade rather than a mandatory one. If you're starting a new design from scratch today with no existing Pico hardware to match, defaulting to the Pico 2 costs almost nothing extra and leaves more headroom if the project grows.

The RP2350 is a substantial architectural step from the RP2040, not just a clock speed bump, and the dual-core-architecture option in particular is a genuinely unusual design decision worth knowing about even if you never touch the RISC-V side of it. For new projects, especially anything doing signal processing or likely to outgrow the original Pico's RAM, the Pico 2 is worth reaching for by default.

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