First Look at the MeshCore Smartphone, a Pocket-Sized Off-Grid Communicator in Disguise

Holding a MeshCore device in your hand, it appears to be a miniature smartphone of sorts. The black bezel and vivid touchscreen are both recognizable, yet slightly smaller. Flip it on its side and you’re staring at a hardware development board, with ports protruding all over the place.

LILYGO developed the T-Display P4 hardware that powers MeshCore. The 4.1″ AMOLED display is no slouch, with a surprisingly snappy 1232 by 568 resolution and a capacitive touchscreen that is sharp even in bright light. When the power goes out, which isn’t frequently, a built-in lithium battery keeps it running for a while.

Looking inside, you’ll discover a Espressif ESP32-P4 processor, which is essentially the operation’s brain and runs on a RISC-V architecture. That translates to two high-speed cores clocked at 360 MHz and one low-power core for background work. Then there’s 16 MB of flash and 32 MB of PSRAM, which should be plenty to run the bespoke software smoothly. An SX1262 LoRa radio module provides connectivity, allowing MeshCore to deliver messages over great distances. A WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5 chip are also included, as well as an additional ESP32-C6 SoC.

Other features include a 2 megapixel camera on the back for taking photos or scanning QR codes, a 9-axis motion sensor for tracking movement, a microphone, a speaker to alert you when something is wrong, and a headphone jack for listening to your messages or whatever. There’s also a microSD card slot to extend storage, as well as a plethora of ports: USB-C x2, a full-size USB-A, an Ethernet cable for wired connections, GPIO pins for hacking, and QWIIC connectors for tinkering with the internals.

When you flash the proprietary firmware, Mesh OS, designed by developer Andy Kirby, MeshCore becomes a dedicated off-grid communicator. This device allows you to transmit and receive messages to other devices across long distances without the use of cell towers or the internet. The UI opens to a home screen that displays your app icons and notifications; swipe through to get to the good stuff. The chat option allows you to create groups, engage in direct chats, and even exchange emoticons and threaded messages! It also displays the strength of the LoRa signal, including timestamps and signal to noise ratio.

A map view shows your nearby nodes as a series of dots on a simple overlay. Discovery lists display the repeaters that are in range, allowing you to see exactly how your messages are being delivered. Terminal mode provides a raw view at the packets, which is extremely useful for debugging purposes. Multitasking works like a charm, and switching between apps is as fluid as it gets. If you want to set up sound notifications, simply use files from your SD card. There’s also an always-on mode that simply displays the time as it charges, just like the iPhone 17.

One thing it lacks is a cellular radio, which means you won’t be able to make calls or use the internet in the traditional sense; instead, the MeshCore team has chosen to focus on decentralized communications, which it accomplishes by relaying your messages through other nearby nodes – as long as there is another node in range, you’re good to go.

If you want one, you could be out of luck; the AMOLED version costs around $119, but the LILYGO team doesn’t have much stock on hand, and it sells out quickly. If you do manage to snag it, Mesh OS can be flashed over via your browser in a matter of minutes, with no coding required.
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