LILYGO has a new handheld development kit, the T-Display K230, which CNX Software covered on 28 October 2026. Unlike most LILYGO boards it is not built on an ESP32. It uses Canaan's Kendryte K230, a Linux-capable RISC-V processor with an AI accelerator, and pairs it with a LoRa radio on the main board and optional cellular connectivity in a keyboard base.

What's on the board

  • Processor: Kendryte K230 with a 1.6 GHz 64-bit RISC-V core with vector extensions and a second 800 MHz core, plus a KPU for INT8/INT16 models. CNX lists about 38 fps for YOLOv5s at INT8.
  • Memory: 1 GB LPDDR4 and a microSD slot.
  • Display and camera: a 4.1-inch 568 x 123 AMOLED touchscreen, HDMI output up to 1080p30, and a rotatable 2 MP GC2093 camera. The bare board has up to three MIPI CSI camera connectors.
  • Radios: Wi-Fi 4 (RTL8189, 2.4 GHz only), an nRF52840 for Bluetooth LE on the supported expansion board, and a Semtech SX1262 (868/915/923 MHz) or LR2021 (830-940 MHz) LoRa transceiver, with two MMCX antenna connectors.
  • Wired: 10/100 Ethernet on an RJ45 port, three USB-C ports, a 40-pin GPIO header and a Qwiic I2C connector.
  • Extras: microphone, speaker, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, and an AHT20 temperature and humidity sensor on the cased version.

The optional keyboard base adds a backlit QWERTY keypad, two 21700 battery holders with a charger and fuel gauge, and, in one version, a Nordic nRF9151 module with a SIM slot for LTE-M, NB-IoT and GNSS.

Software

LILYGO provides the K230 Linux SDK, CanMV/RT-Smart firmware and an LVGL launcher with apps for the camera, video, audio, LoRa, Wi-Fi and battery monitoring. The newer Linux firmware also has experimental Meshtastic and LoRaWAN support. Source code, firmware and examples are on GitHub.

Prices

On LILYGO's official store the kit costs about $150, the keyboard adds $70.94 without the nRF9151 or $113.25 with it, and the bare board sells for $98.79. On AliExpress the kit is about $180 for the SX1262 and LR2021 variant, with the keyboard adding $133.

What it means for IoT projects

LILYGO's similar T-Display-P4 is built on an ESP32-P4 and ESP32-C6. With Linux, a camera, an AI accelerator, Ethernet and an optional cellular modem in one box, the T-Display K230 could work as a field gateway or a remote monitoring station: detect something on camera, then report it over LoRa or LTE-M where there's no Wi-Fi. The catch is that LoRaWAN and Meshtastic support are still experimental, and the K230 software stack is far less familiar than ESP-IDF or Arduino, so expect more tinkering than with an ESP32 LoRa board.