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| The Metro ESP32-P4 Hydra is a compact development board |
Adafruit has quietly dropped one of its most capable Metro boards yet — and it's aimed squarely at makers building smart home gadgets, HMIs, and edge-computing projects.
The new Adafruit Metro ESP32-P4 Hydra is now available for $34.95, and it's a notable departure from the company's earlier RP2040-based Metro offerings. At its heart sits Espressif's ESP32-P4, a dual-core 32-bit RISC-V chip clocked at up to 360 MHz, backed by 16 MB of PSRAM and 16 MB of QSPI NOR flash.
That's a lot of headroom for a board in this price bracket — and Adafruit isn't shy about what it's for.
Built for displays, cameras, and heavy I/O
Where the Hydra really stands out is its connectivity. It carries two-lane MIPI DSI and MIPI CSI connectors in the 22-pin, 0.5 mm-pitch "Raspberry Pi" format, which means makers can plug in off-the-shelf Raspberry Pi displays and Zero v1 cameras without custom wiring. Supported hardware includes the 5-inch and 7-inch Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2 (both 720x1280 with capacitive touch), plus the Zero Spy Camera family with 70°, 120°, and 160° lenses based on the OV5647 sensor.
There's also a hardware H.264 encoder, JPEG encode/decode, image processing acceleration, and a full complement of peripherals: UART, SPI, I²C, I3C, I²S, PWM, ADC, touch sensing, SD/MMC, CAN/TWAI, and an Ethernet MAC. A microSD socket running over four-bit SDIO handles expanded storage for data logging or UI assets.
Smart home ready, thanks to the ESP32-C6
Wireless duties fall to an onboard ESP32-C6 coprocessor connected over SDIO. That gives the Hydra high-speed Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.3 LE, and — perhaps most interestingly for the smart home crowd — support for Thread and Zigbee protocols. Adafruit notes that exposing those mesh protocols may require additional interfacing firmware, but the hardware is there.
For quick sensor hookups, there's a STEMMA QT connector for I²C/I³C peripherals, plus standard Metro/Arduino Uno-style headers with D0–D13, six analog inputs, and a separate six-pin SPI header. All GPIO runs on 3.3 V logic.
Power and programming flexibility
The board measures 72.3 x 53.3 x 14.7 mm and offers a genuinely useful mix of power options: a 7–12 V DC barrel jack, USB-C, or a single-cell LiPo battery connector with onboard charging and voltage monitoring. A USB-A high-speed host port adds software-controlled power and a dedicated 5 V boost supply for battery operation.
Programming is handled over USB-C with TinyUF2 drag-and-drop firmware updates, and there's a dedicated hardware/ROM UART debugging connection. An RGB NeoPixel, a separate D13 user LED, and Reset/Boot buttons round out the board.
One caveat worth flagging: Adafruit confirms it's currently shipping "v1" ESP32-P4 chips, not the newer P4X variant. If you specifically need the v3 P4X, you'll want to hold off.
The takeaway
At under $35, the Metro ESP32-P4 Hydra slots into a sweet spot for makers who want Raspberry Pi-class display and camera support without leaving the Arduino/Metro ecosystem. The Thread and Zigbee support via the C6 coprocessor makes it a compelling candidate for smart home hubs and sensor bridges — provided the firmware side catches up.
The board is available now directly from Adafruit's online store for $34.95.