How Bluetooth versioning works on nRF52840 chip?

[Victor Hugo Gadioli]

I am doing a benchmarking of possible Bluetooth Modules to use in my product, and the basic specifications are Bluetooth 5.0+ and long range. During my search for these modules, I noticed that many of them used the chip nRF52840 in their hardware and, surprisingly, they attested that the Bluetooth version where something between 5.0 and 5.2. Why the same chip has so many Bluetooth version options, but it is not mentioned in the PN? Is it something 100% firmware based that can be upgraded? Is there any significant IC difference between these nRF52840 that I found that would prevent me from upgrading an nRF52840 to the newest Bluetooth version supported (according to Nordic documentation)?

I don't want to buy the "wrong" nRF52840, with less Bluetooth capabilities.

[Joakim Jakobsen]

Hi.

As you can see from the documentation: https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/nRF52840 

nRF52840 - Multiprotocol Bluetooth 5.3 SoC supporting Bluetooth Low Energy, Bluetooth mesh, NFC, Thread and Zigbee.

___

So the nRF52840 does supports Bluetooth 5.3.

However there could be specific features in Bluetooth 5.3 that the nRF52840 doesn't support.

I.e if we look at the nRF52832; It also supports Bluetooth 5.3, but the hardware doesn't support Long Range which was a feature included in Bluetooth 5.0.

I would advise you to determine which features that are important for you and then double check that the device you are looking at supports what you need.
If you have further questions or concerns about this you can open a new ticket here on devzone. You can also contact your regional sales manager for sales related questions. If you don't know who that is, you can send me a PM with your location and I'll provide the contact information you need.

Br,
Joakim