Choose a device
ZephOS runs today on off-the-shelf boards you can buy and flash yourself. Which one to start with, and what changes if you pick another.
Zeph is the device. ZephOS is the operating system on it, and the companion on your Mac is what you drive it from.
You can hold a device running ZephOS today: buy one of the boards below and flash it over USB-C. It runs the same ZephOS, the same companion and the same apps as everything else on this page. Pulse is the first device we make ourselves.
Waveshare
AMOLED 1.8"
ESP32-S3-Touch-AMOLED-1.8- Screen
- 368 x 448 px
- Panel
- 28.7 x 34.94 mm, rect
- Flash
- 16 MB
- SD card
- Yes
- Real-time clock
- Yes
AMOLED 1.75" round
ESP32-S3-Touch-AMOLED-1.75C- Screen
- 466 x 466 px
- Panel
- 44.45 x 44.45 mm, round
- Flash
- 32 MB
- SD card
- No
- Real-time clock
- No
AMOLED 2.06"
ESP32-S3-Touch-AMOLED-2.06- Screen
- 410 x 502 px
- Panel
- 33.09 x 41.51 mm, rect
- Flash
- 32 MB
- SD card
- No
- Real-time clock
- Yes
AMOLED 2.16"
ESP32-S3-Touch-AMOLED-2.16- Screen
- 480 x 480 px
- Panel
- 43.3 x 43.3 mm, rect
- Flash
- 16 MB
- SD card
- Yes
- Real-time clock
- Yes
M5Stack
M5Stack CoreS3
PlannedSupport starts with a board definition and a registry entry, the same way the Waveshare boards got theirs.
M5Stack product pageZeph
Zeph Pulse
ComingThe first device we make.
Each board above is drawn to scale, from its own measurements — the same ones ZephOS and the companion's flasher read — so the sizes on this page are the sizes in your hand. A dashed outline is a device we have nothing measured for yet, so there is nothing to draw and no number to print.
Start with the 1.8
The ESP32-S3-Touch-AMOLED-1.8 is the one to buy first: it is the reference board ZephOS is tuned on, it has a microSD slot, and the companion takes it from blank to running without you leaving the app.
Which board to buy
A rectangle, or the circle?
- A rectangleCompact to start, or the largest panel?
- The circleAMOLED 1.75" round
Compact to start, or the largest panel?
- Compact — start hereAMOLED 1.8"
- The largestAMOLED 2.06"
- AMOLED 1.8"ESP32-S3-Touch-AMOLED-1.8The one to start with. A microSD slot, and the companion flashes it from blank.
- Flash it over USB-C from the companion
- AMOLED 2.06"ESP32-S3-Touch-AMOLED-2.06The largest panel on the list. A card slot too, and the companion flashes it from blank.
- Flash it over USB-C from the companion
- AMOLED 1.75" roundESP32-S3-Touch-AMOLED-1.75CThe circular one. ZephOS draws its chrome to the curve. No card slot, and the companion does not flash it from blank yet.
- Put ZephOS on it with images you build yourself
What every one of them gives you
The same core, on all of them: a touchscreen, physical buttons, a microphone, a speaker and a battery. Each button takes its own gestures — a tap, a double tap, a hold — and a binding names one button and one gesture on it. Which buttons your device has, and which gestures each one answers to, come with the device; the companion lays them out for you.
What changes from board to board is on the cards above: the panel, the card slot, and the real-time clock.
The round one is round all the way down
ZephOS knows the shape of the screen it is on. On the circular board it swaps the baseline type scale for the one drawn for a curve, bends the chrome to the curve instead of running a straight bar off the edge, and scrolls lists along an arc.
Your apps get the shape too — it arrives with the panel size and the safe area when an app launches — so an adaptive app can compose for the circle rather than be cropped into it.
Starting from a blank board
The companion's setup flow lists the models it can flash from blank — today the 1.8 and the 2.06. Pick yours, follow the button choreography it walks you through, and it writes the images over USB-C.
The 1.75C is not on that list yet. It runs ZephOS, and you put ZephOS on it with images you build yourself.
A blank board cannot introduce itself.
It has no firmware yet, so nothing on it can say which board it is. That is why setup shows you a model list: you name the board once, and the choreography that follows — which button, held how long, in what order — is the one that board actually wants, the same one Flash your device prints.
What is coming
M5Stack CoreS3 is a board we intend to support, and it will not be the last vendor on this page.
Zeph Pulse is the first device we build ourselves. It carries a name and nothing else here yet — it arrives on this page with a panel, a price and a button layout, the same way every board above did.
Next
Buy a board, then flash your device. For the full sheet — panel geometry, safe areas, usable pixels — read the boards.