What would be a good reason to use NRF8001 with a separate microcontroller instead of having a one-chip solution with NRF52

[Jong yoon lee]

I know that few companies choose to use NRF528001 with a separate microcontroller like Fitbit.

I would like to know why would they do so instead of using an NRF52 chip that already has the BLE capability and consumes less space.

Would there be any type of advantage of using an NRF8001 chip?

Thanks in advance

[haakonsh]

Hey John,

I do not know of any advantage of using the nRF8001. I believe some manufacturers have used 8001 in their product because the nRF52832 was not ready at the time of development. I strongly urge you to use an nRF52 series SoC over the nRF8001 Tranceiver + ext MCU. We have a lot more resources dedicated to supporting the new 52 series than the old 8001. 

Cheers,

Håkon.