LILYGO has built a handheld development kit around Canaan's Kendryte K230, the dual-core 64-bit RISC-V vision SoC. The T-Display K230 packs the chip together with a 4.1-inch AMOLED touchscreen, HDMI output, 10/100 Ethernet, support for up to three MIPI CSI cameras and a Semtech LoRa radio. It also has a dock for an optional QWERTY keyboard base that takes two 21700 cells and, in one version, a Nordic nRF9151 cellular IoT module. CNX Software covered the kit on 28 October 2026. LILYGO's GitHub repository shipped firmware release v0.2.8 on 20 October.
Before getting into the details, readers should know the sources do not agree with each other. CNX Software's spec list and LILYGO's own wiki page give different answers on the wireless co-processor, the LoRa chip options and the LoRa frequency range. CNX's display resolution also looks like a typo. Below, each claim is credited to the source that makes it. We did not read the LILYGO store page directly, so every price here is as reported by CNX.
The SoC: two RISC-V cores and an NPU
According to CNX Software, the K230 has a 64-bit RISC-V core at 1.6 GHz with RISC-V Vector 1.0 (RVV 1.0) and an FPU, plus a second 64-bit RISC-V core at 800 MHz (RV64GCB). LILYGO's wiki agrees on the layout and describes it as "dual-core RISC-V (1.6 GHz + 0.8 GHz)".
The neural accelerator is Canaan's KPU. CNX lists INT8 and INT16 support and toolchain paths from TVM, TensorFlow, PyTorch and ONNX. It also quotes claimed figures of at least 85 fps on ResNet50 (INT8), at least 670 fps on MobileNetV2 and at least 38 fps on YoloV5S. These are vendor-class claims, not PinoutFeed measurements. LILYGO's wiki gives the NPU's peak as "up to 1.6 TOPS". The SoC also has a VPU for H.264 and H.265, per CNX.
CNX reports 1 GB of LPDDR4 and a microSD slot for storage.
Display, video and camera
The main screen is a 4.1-inch AMOLED on MIPI DSI. CNX names the RM69A10 display driver and a GT9895 touch controller, and the wiki confirms the GT9895. CNX gives the resolution as "568 x 123", which looks like a dropped digit. LILYGO's wiki gives 568 x 1232, and that is the figure we would use until the company says otherwise.
For external video, both sources list HDMI at up to 1080p30. CNX says the standard camera is a 2 MP GC2093 sensor, and that the uncased board supports up to three MIPI CSI cameras. The wiki describes this as "3-channel MIPI CSI-2". The audio parts, per CNX, are a MAX98357A I2S amplifier, a microphone, a speaker and a 3.5 mm jack.
Connectivity: where the sources split
This is where CNX Software and the LILYGO wiki differ most. CNX describes:
- WiFi 4 from a Realtek RTL8189 (2.4 GHz)
- Bluetooth LE from a Nordic nRF52840 on an expansion board
- LoRa from either a Semtech SX1262 (868/915/923 MHz) or a Semtech LR2021 (830–940 MHz)
- Two MMCX antenna connectors
LILYGO's wiki instead describes:
- An Espressif ESP32-S3-R8 (16 MB flash, 8 MB PSRAM) handling Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0
- LoRa from an SX1262 or SX1280, covering 433–923 MHz
LILYGO's own firmware notes are consistent with the CNX account, at least for current hardware. The v0.2.8 release notes and the repository README mention the nRF52840 and nRF9151 (the README lists nRF52840/nRF9151 management), and neither mentions an ESP32-S3. One explanation is an earlier board revision, another is a wiki that hasn't been updated. LILYGO hasn't said which. If you plan to write firmware for the wireless side, check which co-processor your unit has before choosing between the Nordic and Espressif toolchains.
The sources agree on wired Ethernet, but not on every port. Ethernet is 10/100 through a Realtek RTL8152B USB-to-Ethernet bridge, which the wiki lists as "100 Mbps". CNX lists three USB-C ports (power, USB OTG and nRF52840 debugging), a 40-pin GPIO header, a Qwiic connector and a 24-pin keyboard dock connector. The wiki instead lists one power port, one USB 2.0 OTG Type-C port and two 20-pin dual-row headers, which is consistent with a 40-pin header. Both sources give the bare board's size as 104 x 51 x 15.5 mm. CNX puts the cased unit at about 110 x 58 x 30 mm.
The keyboard base and the nRF9151 option
The optional base, as CNX describes it, is a backlit QWERTY keyboard scanned by a TI TCA8418 keypad controller and an XL9555 I/O expander. It also holds two 21700 cells, with a TI BQ25896 charger and a BQ27220 fuel gauge to manage them. One version of the base adds a Nordic nRF9151 with a SIM slot, providing LTE-M, NB-IoT and GNSS.
Software, and what v0.2.8 changed
CNX lists the software as the K230 Linux SDK, Canaan's CanMV/RT-Smart environment, an LVGL-based launcher, and experimental Meshtastic and LoRaWAN support. LILYGO's wiki documents three ways to develop for it. The K230 SDK is built in Docker from the ghcr.io/kendryte/k230_sdk image, with Ubuntu 20.04 recommended as the host. MaixPy, which the wiki describes as K230 MicroPython, is also available. For the ESP32-S3 co-processor the wiki describes, Arduino, PlatformIO and ESP-IDF are offered.
The GitHub README says the public image includes the LVGL launcher, camera and media apps, support for the optional keyboard base, nRF52840/nRF9151 management tools, LoRa and LoRaWAN utilities, and a Meshtastic beta.
Release v0.2.8 was published on 20 October by lewisxhe. It makes the following changes:
- Updates the K230 Linux SDK submodule to upstream dev commit fc6cc215.
- Aligns the RM69A10 panel's U-Boot DSI D-PHY timing with the Linux driver's 594 Mbps lane configuration.
- Adds K230 VPU hardware decode and scaling for H.264 and HEVC, falling back to a software decoder automatically when hardware decode isn't available.
- Adds a switch to force software decoding: set
video.hw_decode=0in/root/.config/k230_phone_ui/settings.conf.
The release notes also warn that v0.2.5 does not include firmware updates for the nRF9151 and nRF52840, and that users who need those should use v0.2.0.
What It Means for Makers
The T-Display K230 ships as a complete handheld with display, camera and LoRa built in (battery power needs the optional keyboard base, which has two 21700 holders), which makes it a ready-made platform for several kinds of project:
- Portable machine-vision prototypes using the multi-camera CSI path and the KPU
- Off-grid messaging terminals using LoRa and Meshtastic
- Field data loggers, using the keyboard base and the nRF9151's LTE-M/NB-IoT and GNSS
It sits somewhere between an ESP32-based LoRa handheld and a Raspberry Pi with a HAT stack. It runs Linux with hardware video decode, which a typical ESP32 handheld does not, and it is more integrated than a Pi with add-on boards. Educators teaching RISC-V Vector code or edge inference also get a self-contained unit.
There are caveats. The Meshtastic and LoRaWAN support is described as experimental and beta. The firmware is moving quickly, with v0.2.8 only eight days old and v0.2.5 flagged for missing co-processor firmware. The sources also disagree on the radio hardware, so check the listing for the exact LoRa chip (SX1262, LR2021 or SX1280, depending on the source) and co-processor before you buy, especially if your region's frequency plan matters.
Price and availability (as reported by CNX Software, 28 October 2026): The kit is listed on AliExpress for about $180 (CNX's wording is "SX1262 and LR2021 variant"), and the keyboard base adds $133 there, which CNX assumes is the nRF9151 version. On LILYGO's own store CNX reports about $150 for the kit, with the keyboard base adding $70.94 without the nRF9151 or $113.25 with it. The bare board is $98.79 on a separate page. CNX gives the figures with a dollar sign and does not name the currency; we read them as US dollars. CNX describes the kit as sold on both AliExpress and LILYGO's store, so this is a shipping product rather than a pre-order, but prices may have changed since 28 October. We could not confirm stock or ship dates from lilygo.cc directly.
