Use this forum to chat about hardware specific topics for the ESP8266 (peripherals, memory, clocks, JTAG, programming)

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By sej7278
#14895 Which module is seen as the best these days?

I've got five esp-07/12 breakout boards, but the ESP-12 modules to go with them never arrived (aliexpress is pretty shady!) but it seems the ESP-07 variant with 16 pins including ADC (instead of 14) and external/ceramic antennas actually work out better than ESP-12's with chip antenna's?

Alternatively, the ESP-201's look pretty good, how do they compare with number of usable GPIO's - seems they are external and chip antennas, and of course don't need a breakout for breadboarding.

Is there a new favourite these days?
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By metalphreak
#14925 From what I've read...

In open air:

External Antenna >> PCB Antenna >> Ceramic Antenna

In a case/enclosure:

External Antenna >> Ceramic Antenna >> PCB Antenna


The ceramic antennas apparently handle being close to metallic objects or capacitive objects (your hands etc) better than a PCB antenna, but the PCB antenna has more gain.