You can use most any Meshtastic device, but they do vary in important ways:
- Some have bigger batteries.
- Some are more power-efficient. The least power efficient are the ones based on the ESP-32 processor. The most power-efficient Meshtastic devices are built on the nRF52840 chipset and the SX1262 LoRa radio.
- Some have better antennas. Internal antennas are convenient, but external whip antennas perform better.
- Some have displays — this is purely in the “nice to have but unnecessary” category.
- Some have better physical enclosures. The R1 Neo is hands-down the best in this category.
Here are some popular choices: