ESP32-C5: The Wi-Fi 6 Microcontroller Built for Modern Smart Homes 🔌 The maker community has long loved the ESP32 for IoT projects, but with the rise of Wi-Fi 6, Matter, and Thread, the old ESP32 variants are starting to show their age. Enter ESP32-C5 — Espressif's latest chip with native Wi-Fi 6 support across both 2.4GHz and 5GHz, plus BLE 5.0, Zigbee, Thread, and Matter built right in. What's New in ESP32-C5? Feature ESP32-C5 Legacy ESP32 Wi-Fi Wi-Fi 6 (2.4/5 GHz) Wi-Fi 4 (2.4GHz only) Bluetooth BLE 5.0 BLE 4.2 Zigbee/Thread ✅ Native ❌ Requires add-ons Matter ✅ Supported ❌ Not supported Why This Matters for Makers Less Congestion — 5GHz support solves the crowded 2.4GHz spectrum problem in modern households Matter Ready — Easily integrate with Home Assistant, Apple Home, Google Home Better Battery Life — BLE 5.0 improvements make battery-powered sensor projects more viable Project Ideas You Can Build Today Universal smart sensor hub (Zigbee + Matter devices in one node) Wi-Fi 6 temperature & humidity…