Elecrow has sent us a sample of the “CrowPanel Advanced 7inch” ESP32-P4 HMI display for review. It is designed for high-performance AI and IoT (AIoT) applications with a 2MP camera module, an ESP32-C6-MINI-1 module for Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, and 802.15.4 (Zigbee, Thread, Matter) connectivity.

Our kit also shipped with three wireless modules, namely an ESP32-H2 wireless module for an additional Thread, Zigbee, and Matter radio, an SX1262 module for LoRa low-power long-range connectivity, and an nRF2401 2.4 GHz wireless module.

In the first part of the review, we will take you through an unboxing of the CrowPanel Advanced 7-inch, checking out the ESP32-P4 HMI AI Display’s hardware before testing it with the preinstalled firmware using LVGL and AI features. You can check the detailed specifications in our previous article: CrowPanel Advance 7-inch ESP32-P4 HMI display supports Zigbee, LoRa, and 2.4GHz radio modules. Note that the company calls it “Advance” or “Advanced” in the documentation.

CrowPanel Advanced 7-inch unboxing

We received a package with one box and a few plastic bags. The box is marked “CrowPanel Advanced 7-inch | ESP32-P4 HMI AI Display: and contains:

• The unit itself
• A USB-C cable for power supply and data connection
• A 4-pin Grove connector with a cable that has DuPont pins on the other end for connecting UART or I2C
• Two speakers
• A 2MP MIPI-CSI camera module (not optional at the time of order)

The plastic bags include optional wireless modules offered with CrowPanel Advanced Series:

• Wireless Module nRF24L01: A 2.4GHz RF module for general-purpose use
• Wireless Module SX1262: A compact PCB module used to add support for LoRa/LoRaWAN
• Wireless Module ESP32-H2: A compact PCB module used to add support for wireless protocols such as Thread, Zigbee, and Matter

The fact that Elecrow offers these optional accessories for installation demonstrates a flexible design philosophy, allowing developers to customize the CrowPanel to suit the specific needs of their projects.

Hardware Overview and Design

When holding the CrowPanel Advanced 7inch in hand, you can feel its sturdiness and good build quality. The device looks neat and tidy, without giving off a cheap feel, and it has an appropriate size suitable for installation in various applications.

The front of the device features its 7-inch IPS capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 1024×600 pixels. The screen delivers sharp images and wide viewing angles, which are standout characteristics of IPS panels. The touchscreen response is also excellent—smooth and fluid (see videos below).

Let’s now look at the other side to check the internal components on the “ESP32 P4-Advance HMI Display 7.0 V1.0” PCB.

Highlights include:

• Main Processor – ESP32-P4 microcontroller clocked at up to 400 MHz with high-performance and low-power cores, a 2D GPU/Pixel Processing Accelerator (PPA). and H.264/MJPEG VPU suitable for processing complex graphics and running real-time AI applications.

• Storage

• 16MB NOR Flash (GD25Q128ESIG)

• MicroSD card slot

• Camera – MIPI CSI connector to install the 2MP camera module for AI Vision tasks, such as facial recognition or object tracking.

• Audio System – NS4168 audio codec chip, built-in microphone, and two speaker connectors, essential for applications requiring voice interaction.

• Wireless Connectivity

• Built-in ESP32-C6-MINI-1 module for Wi-Fi 6 (2.4GHz), Bluetooth 5.3, and 802.15.4 (Zigbee, Thread, Matter)

• Slot for wireless modules such as the ESP32-H2 module, SX1262 module, or nRF24L01 module.

• USB – 2x USB Type-C ports: one for UART, the other for USB 2.0 OTG

• Expansion

• 24-pin GPIO header for connecting sensors, actuators, or other modules.

• 2x Crowtail ports (I2C1 and UART1)

• Battery – 2-pin LiPo battery connector along with a charging LED

The layout of components and ports on the board is well-organized, and the “CrowPanel Advanced 7inch” ESP32-P4 HMI display is a fully featured board ready for use in a wide variety of AIoT projects.

Software and Development for CrowPanel Advanced 7inch

Elecrow says the CrowPanel Advanced 7inch supports the following development platforms:

• Arduino IDE – One of the easiest ways to get started, in theory, but development details for this part are not available yet.
• ESP-IDF – Professional developers can develop directly using ESP-IDF, requiring version 5.4.2 or higher.
• LVGL (Light and Versatile Graphics Library) – A library used to create beautiful and responsive graphical user interfaces (GUI) on the touchscreen. Thanks to the performance of the ESP32-P4, running complex GUIs with LVGL is smooth and seamless, as can be seen in the test videos below.

Additionally, the ESP32-P4 features specialized AI instruction set enhancements to improve performance in Machine Learning tasks, making the display suitable for Edge AI applications that require on-device processing, such as real-time image analysis from the camera or sensor data.

Hands-on review of the CrowPanel Advanced 7inch

In this section, we will focus on testing the key functions and the included accessories.

Touchscreen and GUI Testing

This will be done using the factory firmware based on LVGL, whose binary and code can be found on GitHub (although the source is shared through a Google Drive link there!!), along with schematics and code samples. This part allowed us to test the sharpness, color vibrancy, viewing angles, and touchscreen responsiveness of the solution.

The Home icon can be found in the bottom right corner to access the ESP-Brookesia menu, which functions as a launcher for sample apps such as SquareLine, Calculator, Music Player, Settings, 2048 Game, and Camera.

Testing AI Vision Capabilities with the camera module

Let’s turn off the display and install the 2MP camera module to run sample code related to image processing, such as object detection or counting, in order to evaluate the ESP32-P4’s ability to perform real-time AI Vision processing.

Audio System Testing

Finally, we evaluate the sound quality from the dual speakers using the Music app and the 2048 Game. Those are not really suitable for music playback, but should do fine for voice interaction and audio notifications.

Conclusion

The “CrowPanel Advanced 7inch” is a high-performance and highly flexible AI HMI platform based on the ESP32-P4 RISC-V microcontroller. It features a good quality touchscreen, AI Vision and Voice capabilities, and diverse wireless connectivity options, including built-in Wi-Fi 6, BLE 5.3, and 802.15.4, and support for other IoT protocols via optional modules.

It is an attractive choice for developers building next-generation AIoT devices, whether smart home control systems, industrial control panels, or commercial display units. Although optional accessories add extra cost, the flexibility and capabilities offered by the device make it a worthwhile investment. The next part of the review will demonstrate practical usage of the CrowPanel Advanced 7inch with optional modules to showcase real-world AIoT application examples.

We’d like to thank Elecrow for providing the CrowPanel Advanced 7inch ESP32-P4 HMI AI Display for review. Interested readers can purchase it on Amazon for $75.99, AliExpress for about $64 and up (2MP camera included), and the official Elecrow online store for $45.90 for the version without a camera and $53.90 with the camera. Optional modules add $6.55 (SX1262 LoRa), $4.90 (ESP32-H2 Thread/Zigbee/Matter), and $3.50 (nRF24L01 2.4GHz).

CNXSoft: This article is a translation – with some edits – of the original review on CNX Software Thailand by Arnon Thongtem, edited by Suthinee Kerdkaew.

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.

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