The question is what should you compare this to; is it more an ESP32 or an ESP8266? The new “C3” variant has a single 160 MHz RISC-V core that out-performs the ESP8266, and at the same time ...

Since the ESP8266 came on the scene a few years ago ... the realization that code could be run on the chip itself. Next the ESP32 was released which built more on that foundation.

CapibaraZero open-source firmware offers a low-cost alternative to Flipper Zero for ESP32-S3 hardware such as the LilyGO T-Embed CC1101.