Waveshare ESP32-S3 Touch AMOLED 1.8"
Also known as: ESP32-S3-Touch-AMOLED-1.8 · Waveshare AMOLED 1.8
The DIY-smartwatch favourite: a crisp 368x448 AMOLED plus AXP2101 PMU, IMU, RTC and an ES8311 audio codec on one tiny board — a complete wearable/voice-widget platform for ~$30.
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At a glance
⚑ flag an error| SoC | ESP32-S3 |
|---|---|
| Vendor | Waveshare |
| Type | Display board |
| Memory | 16 MB flash · 8 MB PSRAM |
| Display | 1.8" 368x448 AMOLED (SH8601, QSPI bus), capacitive (FT3168) touch |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi, BLE 5 |
| USB | USB-C |
| Battery | Yes (onboard LiPo charging) |
| Onboard extras | battery, imu, rtc, mic, speaker |
| Typical price | $28-34 (street, varies) |
Compare all ESP32 display boards in one table →
Good for
Works with
Firmware and UI-stack support, with a known-good starting point where one exists. "Community" means an unofficial but working config or port.
- ESPHome In progress config / port →
- LVGL / Arduino Community support config / port →
Gotchas to know
- The SH8601 QSPI AMOLED has no official ESPHome display driver yet — use ESP-IDF/Arduino (esp_lcd_sh8601 component) or track the community thread.
- AMOLED burn-in is real for always-on static dashboards; design with pixel-shift/screen-off.
- TFT_eSPI doesn't do QSPI AMOLED; use Arduino_GFX or the vendor demo stack.
- Waveshare's AMOLED line has six near-identical sizes (1.32-2.41") — configs are not interchangeable.
Variants
One of a 1.32/1.43/1.75/1.8/2.06/2.16/2.41" AMOLED family (CO5300/SH8601/RM690B0 drivers); the 2.06" watch-form variant adds offline voice; a GPS 1.75" exists.
The ESP32-S3 inside
This board is built on the ESP32-S3 . See the SoC page for the full peripheral, GPIO and security details.
Bare modules on the same SoC:
Adding sensors?
Presence radars, climate, CO2, energy — the sensor comparison table covers what people actually wire to these boards, with ESPHome support status and clone-risk ratings per part. Radars want a hardware UART; I2C sensors chain on two pins.
Resources
Community guides usually go deeper than this page: pinout diagrams, wiring, library setup and copy-paste example code from people who build with these boards daily.