You Can Now Buy a MeshCore Smartphone

Mesh networking has been an enticing possibility for decades, but we’ve just recently started approaching a critical turning point where it could become genuinely feasible. The problem is that mesh networking is pretty much the opposite of user friendly. Adoption would be much higher if people could purchase a smartphone-like device built for mesh networking. Now that’s possible with MeshCore and the LILYGO T-Display P4.

MeshCore is a LoRa mesh networking system, similar to Meshtastic. At the moment, Meshtastic seems to have the wider adoption. But MeshCore isn’t anything to scoff at. It has plenty of great features that will appeal to many users. One of those feels like it could be a gamechanger and that is the “smartphone” demonstrated in MeshCore founder Andy Kirby’s most recent video.

The big news here is a mesh-first approach to the user experience. Instead of a mesh gateway or a mesh app on a generic device, this is more like an entire operating system built from the ground-up for MeshCore. That feels like iOS or Android, but without any kind of cellular connectivity. Instead, all communication goes through MeshCore and all of the functionality takes that into account.

Admittedly, this MeshCore firmware “operating system” is very limited right now. There are only a few apps and users shouldn’t expect a true replacement for a modern smartphone yet. But it already looks promising.

The best part is that this doesn’t require any custom hardware. The firmware, which users can flash using a web utility, runs on LILYGO’s T-Display P4. Though that is currently sold out on the LILYGO store, it normally costs about $120. The device packs in a lot of hardware, including an ESP32-P4 microcontroller, an SX1262 LoRa module, an AMOLED screen, a 2MP camera, a 9-axis IMU, a microphone, speaker, and a lithium battery. Heck, there is even an Ethernet port.

This whole setup is definitely still experimental right now, but it has a lot of potential. This kind of purpose-built smartphone approach is exactly what will boost mesh networking adoption and MeshCore’s implementation looks great.