The LILYGO T-Beam-1W is an ESP32-S3-based high-power LoRa development board featuring an SX1262 RF transceiver, an onboard 1W power amplifier (32 dBm), a L76K GNSS module, a 1.3-inch SH1106 OLED, a microSD slot, USB-C, Qwiic connectors, and an AXP2101 PMU. The board runs on a 7.4V battery and includes a cooling fan for high-power RF operation.
We first wrote about the original LILYGO T-Beam (then branded as TTGO) in 2018, and since then, the company introduced various revisions of the T-Beam as it became popular. The T-Beam 1W is the most powerful version so far, with a built-in 1 Watt amplifier that allows the board to transmit data over longer distances without needing to buy separate, bulky amplifiers.
LilyGO T-Beam-1W Specifications:
- Core module – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3-WROOM-1
- SoC – ESP32-S3
- CPU – Dual-core LX7 processor with up to 240MHz
- Memory – 512KB SRAM, 8MB PSRAM
- Storage – 384KB ROM
- Wireless – WiFi 4 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 5.0 LE
- Storage – 16MB flash
- PCB antenna
- SoC – ESP32-S3
- Storage – Micro SD card slot
- Display – 1.3-inch OLED with 128×64 resolution (SH1106 driver connected via I2C)
- Wireless
- WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 on the ESP32-S3 module
- Semtech SX1262 LoRa transceiver with PA+LNA supports 433/868/915/920/923 MHz
- Quectel L76KB Multi-System GNSS module supports GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, QZSS
- Antenna
- SMA connector for LoRA with 868MHz antenna support
- Onboard PCB antenna for the ESP32-S3 module
- Top-mounted GPS antenna for the GNSS module
- USB – USB 2.0 Type-C port for power and programming
- Expansion
- 2x 15-pin headers 2.54mm headers with SPI, I²C, UART, ADC, PWM, touch pin, and more
- 2x Qwiic connectors
- Misc
- User (IO17), Boot, and Reset buttons
- Power toggle switch
- Fan header (small fan on the bottom of the device)
- Onboard RTC battery (not confirmed)
- Power Supply
- 5V/1A via USB-C port
- AXP2101 PMU
- Supports 7.4V F550 battery (without an onboard charger)
- Dimensions – 133 × 43 × 27 mm (board dimension without antenna)
Standard LoRa modules like the SX1262 usually output around 22dBm (~160mW). The T-Beam 1W includes a power amplifier (PA) and low-noise amplifier (LNA) circuit that pushes this to 32dBm. Now 32 dBm will be approx. 1.6W of saturated power, which is the maximum power that this board can handle, but the company advertises it as a 1W board. LILYGO also warns that the antenna must be connected before turning on the power to avoid damaging the RF module. Furthermore, the high power output generates significant heat, which explains the cooling fan on the back of the PCB, which is controlled via GPIO41.
In terms of software support, the T-Beam-1W can be programmed with both Arduino IDE and PlatformIO with the official ESP32 Arduino core and standard ESP32-S3 toolchains. Additionally, LILYGO provides examples for LoRa (SX1262), GNSS (L76K), and the OLED display. Meshtastic might be supported in the future, but at the time of writing, it’s not officially supported [Update: but alpha/beta firmware is already available, see comments section]. More information is available on the Wiki hosted on GitHub.
Previously, we have written about various off-grid LoRa communication devices like the LILYGO T-Echo Plus, the Wio Tracker L1 Pro, the Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 (V4) amd others. You can check those out if you are looking for something similar or something with Meshtastic support.
LilyGO T-Beam-1W is available on AliExpress for $60.98; it’s also available on Amazon for $53.00. It can also be purchased from the official store for $47.32, excluding shipping.
Debashis Das is a technical content writer and embedded engineer with over five years of experience in the industry. With expertise in Embedded C, PCB Design, and SEO optimization, he effectively blends difficult technical topics with clear communication
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The charts are interesting. If I were to use this device in Thailand (AS923), it would be limited to a little above 30 dBm. Maybe that’s why LILYGO only advertises the new T-Beam at 1W.
It’s probably worth noting that in some regions pushing that much power would be completely forbidden. In the EU868 case for instance, most channels are limited to 14 dBm ERP, with only one very small sub-band allowed up to 27 dBm ERP.
I was basically interested in that product but I have to admit that I’m not really aware of the telecpm regulation in my contry (France).
Thank you,
The regulation can be found here: https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000030160927
There are multiple power limits at 868 MHz from 25mW to 500 mW. I don’t really understand that the regulations say…
Grok tells me there’s no country where the 868 MHz version of the board would be legal:
It looks better for the US and other countries that allow higher power.
We definitely got this working on tastic FYI they are on the mesh as we speak 😎
I can now find the pull request: https://github.com/meshtastic/firmware/pull/8967
The Meshtastic documentation has just not been updated yet, I suppose, because it’s not part of the latest Beta release (November 19).
Does this board offer anything in the way of increased sensitivity? It seems to me that 1W of transmit power won’t matter much if the distant nodes can’t be heard in return. And nearly all of the products out there use the SX1262 without any additional amplification. Thoughts? I’m pretty new to this, so there may be something I’m overlooking.
In the article is written to have PA+LNA. Its not PA-only. Please read more carefully.
Thank you for your reply. Despite the condescending tone, it was useful.