M5Stack Expands the CoreS3 Family with the Cut-Price, Feature-Packed CoreS3 Lite
If you're on a budget but need more than the CoreS3 SE offers, the new CoreS3 Lite might fit your project just right.
M5Stack has expanded its popular CoreS3 Espressif ESP32-S3-based development board range, announcing the CoreS3 Lite — a cost-reduced variant designed to offer more than the entry-level CoreS3 SE launched last year.
"CoreS3 Lite is a programmable IoT [Internet of Things] controller packed with rich peripherals," M5Stack claims of its latest hardware launch. "Powered by an [Espressif] ESP32-S3 at its core, it features a 240MHz [Tensilica] Xtensa 32-bit LX7 dual-core processor with 16MB flash and 8MB PSRAM [Pseudo-Static RAM] on board. Typical scenarios include smart-home control, desktop robot companions, and more."
M5Stack launched the CoreS3 back in May 2023, offering an all-in-one device powered by an Espressif ESP32-S3 microcontroller and featuring a Galaxycore Microelectronics GC0308 VGA image sensor, a 2" 320×240 color touchscreen display, integrated Lite-On LTR-553ALS-WA I2C digital light and proximity sensor and Bosch Sensortec BMI270 six-axis inertial measurement unit (IMU) with separate BMM150 magnetometer, dual microphones, plus an NXP real-time clock (RTC).
That's a lot of hardware in not a lot of space, with M5Stack reducing the load a year later with the launch of the M5Stack CoreS3 SE — the same base hardware but without the camera and most of the integrated sensors, retaining only the real-time clock and microphones, plus the touchscreen display. it also loses the 500mAh battery of its bigger stablemate, meaning it can't easily be used on-the-go.
The M5Stack CoreS3 Lite, brought to our attention by CNX Software, sits somewhere between the CoreS3 and CoreS3 SE. Like the full-fat CoreS3, the CoreS3 Lite includes the GC0308 VGA image sensor, LTR-553ALS-WA light and proximity sensor, BMI270 inertial measurement unit, and BMM150 magnetometer, plus real-time clock and dual microphone. What it's missing is the "DinBase" backplate — a feature of the full CoreS3 that provides a DIN rail- and screw-compatible mounting system, 30-pin general-purpose input/output (GPIO) header, two additional Grove-compatible expansion connectors, and a 9–24VDC power input.
In its place, the CoreS3 Lite comes with a magnetic backplate, which can be removed to reveal the hardware within. Its removal reveals another cost-cutting measure, too: while the CoreS3 Lite still includes a built-in battery, unlike the CoreS3 SE, its capacity has been dropped from the 500mAh of the CoreS3 to just 200mAh, with a corresponding impact on runtime.
The CoreS3 Lite is now available on the M5Stack store, priced at $44.90 — a $15 discount over the full-fat CoreS3, but more expensive than the CoreS3 SE at $38.90.