alt Hacker NewsThe "high-end" modern MCUs are pretty great, you have the NRF offerings, but also the likes of the ESP32 where you can get Bluetooth and WiFi in a single package.
Personally these days I would lean towards the ESP32, they continue to iterate on it nicely and it has great community support. I'm personally developing a smart watch platform based on micropython.
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jsheard • yesterday at 9:29 AM
Aren't ESP32s way more power hungry than typical BT-only parts though?
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mrheosuper • yesterday at 9:46 AM
I would not consider ESP32 high-end MCU, it still lacks many peripheral(DSP, GPU), its core clock is not high(only 240mhz iirc).
Recently they release ESP32P4, with very strong performance, but like you guess, without Radio
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While the ESP32 is great for many applications, it’s not for battery operated stuff. When an nRF draws 1-2 mA when using BLE, ESP32 will draw 40 mA. And the chip they selected is even more efficient.
The low power chips can also run in low power mode without BLE running using micro amps, something the ESP can’t match.
I really like ESP32 and I hope they have a low power chip on their roadmap.