Bigger, Faster, Better: The ESP32-P4-WIFI6 HMI is Here
Go big or go home: Waveshare’s new ESP32-P4 board packs a 10-inch touchscreen and Wi-Fi 6 to bring your biggest ideas to life.
You’ve surely come across many development boards with an integrated display by now. From cheap yellow displays to bigger-name products, they are very popular with makers. And why not? By integrating computing resources with a display, these boards become an all-in-one platform for prototyping and building quick weekend electronics projects.
However, for the most part, these devices are equipped with very small screens: from under an inch up to around three inches is typical. This greatly limits what one can do with the boards. What if your ideas are bigger than that? What if you want to build something the size of a tablet, for instance? There are few options out there, let alone affordable ones. But now there is a new one that has just been released by Waveshare. It is called the ESP32-P4-WIFI6 HMI All-In-One Touch Display Development Board, and it comes equipped with a 7-, 8-, or 10.1-inch display for between $80 and $90, depending on the options.
The board is built around the ESP32-P4, a high-performance RISC-V-based microcontroller that combines dual-core and single-core 32-bit processors. The chip includes plenty of on-chip resources, along with 32MB of PSRAM in-package and 32MB of onboard NOR flash. This makes the platform perfect for more demanding embedded applications such as advanced human-machine interfaces, edge computing, and multimedia processing.
The displays themselves are IPS panels connected via MIPI DSI, offering resolutions of 720 × 1280 on the 7-inch model and 800 × 1280 on the 8- and 10.1-inch versions. With capacitive 10-point touch support and toughened glass panels, the boards feel more like tablet-class devices than typical dev kits. Brightness ranges from 400 to 450 cd/m² for use even in difficult lighting conditions.
Beyond the screen, the board is packed with features. A MIPI-CSI interface supports an onboard 5MP camera capable of 1080p video at 30 FPS. The ESP32-P4 also integrates hardware accelerators for JPEG processing, pixel manipulation, and H.264 encoding, enabling image and video applications without the need for external processors.
Connectivity is handled by an onboard ESP32-C6-MINI-1U module, which adds 2.4GHz Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 LE via an SDIO interface. Audio capabilities are handled by an ES8311 codec and ES7210 echo cancellation chip paired to dual microphones and a speaker, enabling voice interaction and AI-powered speech applications.
The ESP32-P4 includes secure boot, flash encryption, cryptographic accelerators, a true random number generator, and hardware access protection mechanisms. Combined with a full metal enclosure for heat dissipation and mounting provisions for integration, the board is clearly targeting both smart home terminals and industrial control scenarios.
With its tablet-sized touchscreen, multimedia hardware, modern wireless connectivity, and strong security foundation, the ESP32-P4-WIFI6 HMI board blurs the line between a development kit and a finished embedded product platform. For makers and engineers looking to build something bigger and more polished than the usual small-screen projects, this may be one of the most compelling options yet.
R&D, creativity, and building the next big thing you never knew you wanted are my specialties.