Adafruit has started selling the Metro ESP32-P4 Hydra (product ID 6536), a board in the Arduino Uno shape that pairs Espressif's ESP32-P4 application processor with an ESP32-C6 for wireless. CNX Software covered it on 26 October 2026. The price is $34.95, with a limit of two per customer.
Two chips, one board
The ESP32-P4 has no radio of its own. It is a dual-core RISC-V chip running at up to 360 MHz, plus a 40 MHz low-power core, with 768 KB of L2 memory. Adafruit adds 16 MB of PSRAM and 16 MB of QSPI flash. Wireless comes from the ESP32-C6, connected over SDIO, which brings Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth LE 5.3 and an 802.15.4 radio for Thread or Zigbee. Adafruit notes that the C6 may need its own interfacing firmware and that the P4 can reprogram it over GPIO.
One detail matters before ordering. The board uses the original ESP32-P4 v1 silicon, not the newer P4X "v3" revision. Adafruit's product page says plainly that anyone who needs the v3 chip should not buy this board.
Display, camera and USB
The P4's main draw is its MIPI interfaces, and the Hydra exposes both: 2-lane MIPI DSI for a display and 2-lane MIPI CSI for a camera, each on a 22-pin 0.5 mm connector in the Raspberry Pi layout. Adafruit lists the 5-inch and 7-inch Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2 (720x1280, capacitive touch) and OV5647 "Zero Spy" cameras with 70°, 120° or 160° lenses as supported. The Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3 with the IMX708 sensor is not.
There are two USB ports. USB-C handles power, serial, JTAG and the TinyUF2 bootloader. A USB-A port runs as a 480 Mbps High-Speed host, with a 5 V boost converter and software control of its power.
The rest is familiar Metro layout: Uno headers with D0-D13 and six analog inputs, a 6-pin SPI header, 3.3 V logic, a STEMMA QT connector, a 4-bit SDIO microSD slot, a NeoPixel, a D13 LED and Reset and Boot buttons. Power can come from a 7-12 V barrel jack, USB-C or a LiPo cell, with charging, battery voltage monitoring and an on/off switch. The board measures 72.3 x 53.3 x 14.7 mm.
Software is still catching up
ESP-IDF works today. CircuitPython supports the board in 11.0.0-alpha.2, and Adafruit describes the P4 port as still in alpha. Arduino support is in progress. CNX Software also points out that it could not find detailed documentation yet.
For home automation the interesting combination is a touch panel, a camera and a Thread-capable radio on one board, which is the kind of hardware people use for wall dashboards and door stations. Until the C6 firmware and Arduino support settle, expect to do some groundwork yourself.