Bluetooth 5.0 Support for NRF51 Series

[soumil]

Hi,

I wanted to know whether Bluetooth 5.0 will ever be supported on the NRF51 series chips or we need to migrate from NRF51 to NRF52 in order to have Bluetooth 5.0 in our application.

[run_ar]

You will have to migrate to get Bluetooth 5.0 features. which features do you need?

[soumil]

We would want to use the increased range support and also able to send more data in advertising packets. For this you are saying we need to switch to NRF52 ?

[run_ar]

Long range / coded phy is a radio HW change, This means you will have to look at the new nRF52840. I recommend tuning in on our web event next week for more information.

[soumil]

Okay thanks. Would Bluetooth 5.0 be available only in new upcoming android/ios phones since as you mention Hardware changes are required in the BLE chip ? If yes , then would that mean all the existing phones would keep supporting Bluetooth 4.2 only even with new android and ios software updates

[run_ar]

That will vary a lot depening on the chip in the phone. Most older phones will never get support for 2MBit and Long range. Some newer phones might already have 2mbit support. But might not get long range support. In general it's more likely that newer handsets will get 2mbit as this isn't a big radio change. Long range is a bigger HW change so Its less likely/unlikely that existing phones will get this.