LILYGO Upgrades the T-Deck, Adds LoRa as Standard and a New GPS Receiver
Launching at $69.99, this compact all-in-one now comes with more connectivity options, a 2Ah battery, and a slick case as standard.
Embedded electronics specialist LILYGO has given its T-Deck all-in-one portable development board an overhaul, making the move to including LoRa connectivity as standard and adding a GPS receiver for good measure to create the T-Deck Plus.
LILYGO launched the original T-Deck back in June 2023 as an Espressif ESP32-S3-powered all-in-one with a BlackBerry-inspired keyboard and trackball beneath a full-color IPS 320×240 touchscreen display. The Plus variant, brought to our attention by Linux Gizmos, sticks to this same processor, which has two Tensilica Xtensa LX7 cores running at up to 240MHz and retains the same 8MB of pseudo-static RAM (PSRAM) and 16MB of flash as the original.
Where it gains its "Plus" suffix is from the addition of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver, which sits on board alongside the earlier model's existing single-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5 Low Energy (BLE), and Semtech SX1262 LoRa radios — now a standard feature, rather than being an optional extra as on the original T-Deck. The battery is no longer optional, either, with the Plus variant coming with a bundled 2,000mAh battery. A case is now provided as standard, too, with a break-out point for external antennas and a tripod-style mounting point at the rear.
These upgrades do come at a cost, of course. The original T-Deck is available to order at $43.08 without LoRa transceiver or $52.13-$52.66 depending on the chosen LoRa transceiver frequency; the new T-Deck Plus is priced at $69.99 regardless of frequency. It is also, at the time of writing, only available in 915MHz and 868MHz versions, with the 433MHz not yet available to order.
The T-Deck Plus has been listed on the LILYGO store at $69.99, though at the time of writing was shown as out of stock.