"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?

[endnode]

Also everything matters including PCB shape (= this might be more important for DK then "best" tuning), casing etc. (so if you think this thru there is no real "line of sight" test unless you send the thing into space and measure from the distance, there are always some holders or other objects which are close to the beacon and can absorb or reflect 2.4GHz waves... Still you can get close to that scenario and I do believe that Ruuvi tag has very good antenna design which can be superior to nRF5x DK boards.