Nordic nRF52840
Shares rank 16 of 24 microcontrollers by recommenders
Recommended for Bluetooth Low Energy projects, with people praising its stable BLE support and low power use compared with the ESP32.
9 people recommended Nordic nRF52840 in Hacker News comments and none criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.
Summary written by Claude from 11 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 10 of those comments still count.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 9
- mixed feelings
- 0
- warn against or regret it
- 0
The record
Recommended in 7 of 12 months
In 9 different threads.
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 9 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
- Recommended in 9 threadsNeeds 5 or more, met.
- The biggest thread supplies 11% of its recommendersNeeds half or less, met.
The same rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. Mixed feelings count toward neither side. How the badge works
What people say about it
Reasons grouped from a sample of 10 of the 10 opinions about it, picked in proportion to how many people recommend it, have mixed feelings and criticize it. Each mark is one comment in the sample. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Chosen over other chips for projects
“For an application using bluetooth low energy, a Nordic NRF52840 turned out to be the winner.”
Comment from 24 Apr 2026 in “A DIY Watch You Can Actually Wear” “the power consumption between the two made it obvious the nRF one was the way to go”
Comment from 25 Sep 2026 in “The newest ESP32 can run Linux and it's getting close to a Raspberry Pi” “I have transitioned to using the Nordic NRF chips (nrf52840) for my hobby projects”
Comment from 29 Jul 2026 in “The Rust on ESP Book” - Comment from 9 Jun 2026 in “A Matter Wi-Fi Light Bulb in Rust on the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W”
Stable, strong Bluetooth Low Energy support
“Good for bluetooth devices, should be lower power than ESP32.”
Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “The Death of Arduino?”
Other microcontrollers people recommend
The four most recommended other microcontrollers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Mixed | Criticize | Approval | Months | Had for | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ESP32 | 160 | 23 | 30 | 84% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Raspberry Pi Pico | 60 | 10 | 15 | 80% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Arduino boards | 45 | 29 | 67 | 40% | 11 | — | — |
| Raspberry Pi RP2350 | 41 | 3 | 12 | 77% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Nordic nRF52840This page | 9 | 0 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | — |
Also compared with Raspberry Pi RP2040, STM32 microcontroller, Teensy and ESP32-S3.
What people said
All 10 opinions about it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the power consumption between the two made it obvious the nRF one was the way to go”
“Get the nRF52840 USB dongle mentioned.”
“you have to order it from Mouser for $16 instead”
“I have transitioned to using the Nordic NRF chips (nrf52840) for my hobby projects”
“concludes the nrf52840 is the best”
“For an application using bluetooth low energy, a Nordic NRF52840 turned out to be the winner.”
“I have tested this myself, and it works pretty well.”
“The $5 nrf52840 should be sufficient, it can scan 114 channels (from 2400-2514 MHz) several times per second”
“Some Nordic MCUs are easy too, specifically nrf52840.”
“Good for bluetooth devices, should be lower power than ESP32.”
Counts come from 1,791,911 Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, November 2025 to October 2026, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 2 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.