"Tile Pro" Tracker - Impressive Range

[jumpingfool]

I have recently purchased the newly released "Tile Pro" bluetooth tracker after noticing a number of reviews online were giving good reports in terms of the BLE range.

The device is using the TC35678 from TI connected to an RF amplifier that I've been unable to identify marked X8 OZ4D. It also has a pretty funky looking PCB antenna - you can see it in the FCC report here:

fccid.io/.../Internal-Photos-3495407

They claim battery life of 1 year on a CR2032.

Under test the line of sight range from this device is nearly double that I can achieve from the NRF52 DK. Is this a function of the amplifier, the antenna design or potentially both?

If I move my design to the 52840 with +8db output can I reasonably expect to achieve similar performance in terms of range and battery life, or will an RF amplifier need to be incorporated into the design in order to achieve this?

[jumpingfool]

Thanks for the heads up - the video is certainly impressive. Just ordered a few of these to try out.

Do you have one of these boards? How do you find performance in a real world setting?

I guess my question would be, if this line of sight range is possible at +4db using the nRF52832 why does the PCA10040 only seem give a fraction of that (tested with iPhone 8)? Presumably this can only be down to a difference in the antenna? Have the two boards been tuned differently and if so how?