# Nordic nRF52840

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/nrf52840/

9 people recommended Nordic nRF52840 in Hacker News comments and none criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 12 months, in 9 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended for Bluetooth Low Energy projects, with people praising its stable BLE support and low power use compared with the ESP32.

Summary written by Claude from 11 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 10 of those comments still count.

## Why people recommend it

- Chosen over other chips for projects (4 comments in the sample): "For an application using bluetooth low energy, a Nordic NRF52840 turned out to be the winner." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47885453)) "the power consumption between the two made it obvious the nRF one was the way to go" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49847438)) "I have transitioned to using the Nordic NRF chips (nrf52840) for my hobby projects" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49104478))
- Stable, strong Bluetooth Low Energy support (1 comment in the sample): "Good for bluetooth devices, should be lower power than ESP32." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45989598))

## Other microcontrollers people recommend

- [ESP32](https://hackerapproved.com/p/esp32/): 160 recommend, 23 mixed, 30 criticize
- [Raspberry Pi Pico](https://hackerapproved.com/p/raspberry-pi-pico/): 60 recommend, 10 mixed, 15 criticize
- [Arduino boards](https://hackerapproved.com/p/arduino/): 45 recommend, 29 mixed, 67 criticize
- [Raspberry Pi RP2350](https://hackerapproved.com/p/rp2350/): 41 recommend, 3 mixed, 12 criticize

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/nRF52840)

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Nordic nRF52840", https://hackerapproved.com/p/nrf52840/ (9 recommend, 0 mixed, 0 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.