M5Stack Refreshes the Cardputer with the Cardputer-Adv, Now with Integrated IMU and Bigger Battery

M5Stack has announced a new variant of its popular Cardputer all-in-one microcontroller-powered pocket computer kit, the Cardputer Adv Version — now featuring improved audio, a bigger battery, an integrated inertial measurement unit (IMU), and more expansion options.

"Cardputer-Adv is a programmable card-sized computer powered by the Stamp-S3A core module (based on [an Espressif] ESP32-S3FN8)," M5Stack says of its latest launch. "It integrates a 1.14" LCD display and a 56-key minimalist keyboard for convenient interaction and input operations."

M5Stack launched the original Cardputer back in October 2023, as a kit that combined the company's StampS3 breadboard-friendly Espressif ESP32-S3 development board with a carrier giving it a compact but just-about-usable QWERTY keyboard, full-color 1.14" IPS display, a speaker and microphone, Grove expansion, and a 120mAh battery, expanded via a secondary base that added infrared capabilities, microSD Card storage, and a larger 1.4Ah battery. In March this year it announced a revised design featuring an improved keyboard and better battery life — but the Cardputer Adv Version goes further still.

The Cardputer-Adv, brought to our attention by Linux Gizmos, is externally near-identical to the earlier Cardputer models. It has the same compact keyboard, the same tiny display, and houses the same StampS3A as the Cardputer v1.1 in the same place. Internally, though, there have been a range of improvements — starting with a move to a bigger battery, dropping the 120-plus-1,400mAh approach in favor of a single unit housing a bigger 1,750mAh battery.

Other changes include a move to the Everest Semiconductor ES8311 audio chip, which is now available on both the internal speaker and a 3.5mm audio jack for connection to headphones or an external amplifier, and the inclusion of a six-axis Bosch Sensortec BMI270 inertial measurement unit. There are more expansion pins, found on a 14-pin 0.1"-spaced header, for external hardware, and a lanyard hole for wearable projects too — while retaining the magnetic mount and LEGO-compatible rear of the original.

The new Cardputer-Adv has been listed on the M5Stack store at $29.90, though at the time of writing was showing as out of stock.