An engineering student working for Rutronik has conducted tests on the latest generation of Bluetooth Low Energy and have analysed the performance of the wireless standard under various conditions. 

One of the results of the study was a significant increase in range compared to the previous version, Bluetooth Low Energy 4.2, with a simultaneous reduction in energy consumption. 

The measurements were carried out in an open field, a forest, an urban shopping mall, and offices in order to simulate different areas of use. 

The results are available in a white paper for download.

The tests were conducted using a prototype of the Nordic nRF52840 for the hardware and an alpha version of Soft Device S140 for the software. 

Two preview development kits (PDKs) were used. Both PDKs were linked and moved further and further apart to measure the power consumption, data throughput, and range of the Bluetooth 5 line. 

The white paper is the result of a bachelor thesis written by a Pforzheim University student who interned at Rutronik, where he was responsible for studying the performance of Bluetooth 5.