Pico H and Pico W Development Boards

Raspberry Pi has developed two updated versions of the Pico development board. They have developed one version with a pre-soldered header (the Pico H) and one version that includes built-in Wi-Fi (the Pico W). The Pico H is the original Raspberry Pi Pico, but it now comes with a pre-soldered header. The Pico W is similar to the original Raspberry Pi Pico, but it features Infineon's CYW43439 Wi-Fi module onboard which allows for 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi connectivity and is connected to the RP2040 microcontroller over SPI.

The Pico W is designed to be used with either 0.1" pin headers or as a surface-mounted module by soldering the castellated I/O pins directly to the board. It also has SMT pads underneath the USB connector and BOOTSEL button, allowing these signals to be accessed if used as an SMT module.

The Pico W also uses an onboard buck-boost SMPS to generate the 3.3 V required for the RP2040 and external circuitry. This SMPS allows a wide range of input voltages to be used, 1.8 V to 5.5 V, which can come from a variety of sources, single lithium-ion cell, USB, or even three AA batteries in series.