LILYGO T-Deck Plus ESP32-S3 915Mhz LORA-89 GPS 2.8-inch Display TTGO Development Board Built-in Antenna with ABS Shell

I love it! At first I loaded it with MeshTastic, but now I have it on MeshCore. The screen is great, the keyboard is easy to use, and a full charge seems to last about a day and a half in "receive mode." Everyone says the case looks just like a Blackberry, which is probably true, but it is easy to hold and the trackball has been improved over time. I've been using it for several months and it seems very durable. One problem with the case is the button on the left side, which will reboot the device -- it is very easy to accidently press it. Several of us have popped the side of the case open, pushed the plastic button piece inside, and covered the slot with black tape! No more accidental reboots. With this unit, your Mesh device is self contained -- no need for a pocket phone or a computer or Bluetooth connection. Order yours with the antenna already installed.

Operator: [REDACTED] Device: LILYGO T-Deck Plus Mission: Expand mesh network coverage + reconnaissance Summary: This device should not be commercially available. It’s not a dev board — it’s a tactical communications platform disguised as a hobbyist toy. The keyboard has better feedback than my military-grade field terminals. The display is crisp enough to read in full daylight, low light, or in the middle of an adrenaline-fueled sprint across the driveway chasing packet loss. I conducted tests at varying distances: • 0.1 mile – flawless • 0.5 mile – flawless • 1.6 miles – crisp packets • 2.0 miles – still received “YOLO TEST MSG” from my porch • 2.7 miles – dropped only one packet, then continued like nothing happened The battery efficiency? I charged it once, used it all weekend, and it still had the energy to judge my life choices. Threat assessment: This board empowers civilians with capabilities once reserved for reconnaissance units. Recommendation: Buy two. Keep one in the glove compartment. Keep one next to your bed. You never know when the mesh will call.

Works out of the box. Changing the internal antenna to external was interesting. You need an antenna and a new internal connector. You have to balance a couple of pieces while closing it back together. It’s a bit fragile compared to any other radio / phone, but that’s expected.

Good little units but the software is just a little laggy. Also, not super compact except when you compare to other models with external antennas. Great for very local communication.

I was excited about this device, but it was a brick less than 24 hours after first setting it up. I set it up, and connected via Bluetooth. Sadly there were no nodes in my area so I was unable to test it out. I did find nodes nearby, and decided to leave it on a standard 5V/1A charger overnight, and test it the next morning. I picked it up the next morning, and it would not power on. A blue light would flash briefly behind the keyboard, but the screen remained dark. A search online revealed this as a common issue. A faint smell of burnt electrical components was noted. This may be something that an experienced technician with a soldering iron can easily address, but I need more robust options that can at least handle a 5V/1A charger overnight (seems like a pretty low threshold). I returned it, and will continue my search.

Great product!

Product arrived in a non-working state and was missing the 915 MHz antenna. The device was not able to connect a wireless device over Bluetooth and still is not able to pair to a device unless it is in the Base UI. I hope that future firmware versions will remediate a lot of the issues that the Lilygo deck is plagued with!

I love this thing, still some bugs to fix and features to add you'll be looking forward too. To start, the UI version of meshtastic is awesome with one little irritation. IF you want to bluetooth to the device from your phone to adjust advanced settings you will have to restart it and boot into a different mode by holding the meshtastic icon on the screen while it boots. It disables the UI while bluetooth is active. Other than the lack of multitasking by the core service it runs incredibly smooth, has enough features you won't be bluetoothing too often anyway. The reset button is on the left side, little oversized imo.

Great, very cool bit of kit.

Upgrade the antenna

OK only when you install an external antenna.

Great nice design

Frequently does not aquire GPS..Power cycling sometimes helps. This device is not suitable for applications requiring the use of on-board GPS. The processor,keyboard, BT, and WiFi are fine.