15 of the 20 features in our table differ between the ESP32-H2 and the ESP32-S2.
Thread, Zigbee and BLE, no Wi-Fi
No Wi-Fi: Thread, Zigbee and Bluetooth LE only, made for battery sensors in a mesh network.
Watch out: It needs a Thread border router, a Zigbee coordinator or a BLE gateway to reach your network.
Single-core, USB OTG, 14 touch pins, no Bluetooth
One core with native USB OTG, 14 touch pins and a DAC, but no Bluetooth. The S3 has largely replaced it.
Watch out: No Bluetooth and a single core, and the highest deep-sleep current in this list (25 µA).
| Feature | ESP32-H2 | ESP32-S2 |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 1 × RISC-V, 96 MHz | 1 × Xtensa LX7, 240 MHz |
| Low-power core | No | ULP RISC-V + FSM |
| PSRAM | No | In-package or external |
| Wi-Fi | No | Wi-Fi 4 (802.11 b/g/n), 2.4 GHz |
| Bluetooth | LE 5.3 | No |
| Thread / Zigbee | Yes (802.15.4) | No |
| USB | Serial/JTAG (flash, serial, debug) | OTG full speed |
| GPIO | 19 | 43 |
| ADC channels | 5 | 20 (ADC1: 10) |
| DAC | No | 2 × 8-bit |
| Touch pins | No | 14 |
| Camera | No | Parallel (DVP) |
| Display interface | SPI only | Parallel (i80, via I2S) |
| Deep sleep | 7 µA | 25 µA |
| ESPHome | Yes (ESP-IDF, over Thread) | Yes (ESP-IDF or Arduino) |
Same on both: SRAM, TWAI (CAN), Ethernet MAC, AI / DSP, and Arduino-ESP32.
Open the ESP32 comparison →Tick what your project needs and see which of the eight chips fits best.
The ESP32-H2 has a lean radio for battery end devices on Thread or Zigbee (no Wi-Fi to power or set up), Bluetooth LE, Thread or Zigbee, and a lower deep-sleep current (7 against 25 µA). The ESP32-S2 has Wi-Fi on the chip (Wi-Fi 4 on 2.4 GHz), USB OTG, a camera interface (parallel), and a display interface (parallel i80).
The ESP32-H2: 7 µA against 25 µA for the ESP32-S2, as typical figures for the chip alone in Espressif’s datasheets. On a development board the regulator, the LEDs and the USB-serial chip usually draw more than the chip itself.
Arduino-ESP32 and ESP-IDF support both chips, so most code builds for either; pin numbers, strapping pins and some peripherals change. Anything that uses Bluetooth LE or Thread or Zigbee won’t carry over: the ESP32-S2 doesn’t have that hardware.
ESP32 vs ESP32-H2 ESP32 vs ESP32-S2 ESP32-C3 vs ESP32-H2 ESP32-C3 vs ESP32-S2 ESP32-C5 vs ESP32-H2 ESP32-C5 vs ESP32-S2 ESP32-C6 vs ESP32-H2 ESP32-C6 vs ESP32-S2 ESP32-H2 vs ESP32-P4 ESP32-H2 vs ESP32-S3 ESP32-P4 vs ESP32-S2 ESP32-S2 vs ESP32-S3
Figures from Espressif datasheets, ESPHome and Arduino-ESP32 documentation, checked in November 2026.