diff --git a/py/objstr.c b/py/objstr.c
index 006deee095..e8b2512a24 100644
--- a/py/objstr.c
+++ b/py/objstr.c
@@ -1995,7 +1995,7 @@ mp_obj_t mp_obj_bytes_hex(size_t n_args, const mp_obj_t *args, const mp_obj_type
     // Code below assumes non-zero buffer length when computing size with
     // separator, so handle the zero-length case here.
     if (bufinfo.len == 0) {
-        return mp_const_empty_bytes;
+        return make_empty_str_of_type(type);
     }
 
     vstr_t vstr;
diff --git a/tests/basics/builtin_str_hex.py b/tests/basics/builtin_str_hex.py
index 544406cfc5..f77fe7c4fa 100644
--- a/tests/basics/builtin_str_hex.py
+++ b/tests/basics/builtin_str_hex.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ if not hasattr(bytes, "fromhex"):
     raise SystemExit
 
 for x in (
+    b"",
     b"\x00\x01\x02\x03\x04\x05\x06\x07",
     b"\x08\x09\x0a\x0b\x0c\x0d\x0e\x0f",
     b"\x7f\x80\xff",