Elevate Your Projects with This $16 ESP32-S3 All-in-One
Upgrade your DIY builds using Waveshare’s $16 ESP32-S3 dev board — an all-in-one unit with a color display, microphone, and expansion ports.
If you think about it, a lot of hobbyist projects start by wiring together a microcontroller development board and a display. Whether you are designing a desktop AI companion, a weather station, or a stock market tracker, this is the hardware you will need to get going. In many of these cases, the device is intended for display in the home. For this reason, bare circuit boards and jumper wires aren’t exactly the ideal look.
Fortunately, electronics manufacturers have recognized that people want microcontrollers paired with displays, and they have produced a number of nice, polished devices that contain both in one tidy package. The latest to be released is Waveshare’s $16 ESP32-S3 0.85-inch LCD Display Development Board.
As the name implies, the device comes equipped with an ESP32-S3 microcontroller and a small, 0.85-inch display. This hardware is inside a stylish enclosure with three programmable buttons and a TF card slot for storage expansion.
The board is powered by a dual-core Xtensa LX7 processor running at up to 240 MHz, paired with 8 MB of flash and 8 MB of PSRAM. This provides ample performance for handling multimedia tasks, user interfaces, and even lightweight AI workloads. The 128×128 IPS display, while compact, offers 65K colors and is driven over an SPI interface, making it suitable for status dashboards, simple animations, and interactive menus.
Aside from the display, the board also includes an ES8311 audio codec, a pair of onboard microphones, and support for external speakers via a dedicated header. This opens the door to voice-enabled applications, from smart assistants to audio recorders. In fact, the platform is designed with AI speech interaction in mind and can connect to online large language model services for more advanced functionality.
Connectivity is another strong point. The ESP32-S3 offers built-in 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5 (LE), enabling integration with cloud services, mobile devices, and IoT ecosystems. Combined with the onboard antenna, this makes it easy to deploy the device without additional RF design work.
Visually, the board adds some flair with eight surrounding RGB LEDs, which can be programmed for dynamic lighting effects. Whether used for notifications, ambient lighting, or simple visual feedback, these LEDs enhance the device’s appeal.
Power options are flexible as well. The board supports USB-C input for development and operation, along with a connector for a 3.7 V lithium battery, complete with onboard charging and management circuitry. This allows for both portable and stationary use cases.
With support for both ESP-IDF and the Arduino IDE, along with accessible GPIO, I2C, and UART interfaces, the ESP32-S3 0.85-inch LCD board strikes a balance between polish and flexibility. It’s a compact platform that not only looks good on a desk but also provides the tools needed to build sophisticated, interactive devices quickly.