Nordic Semiconductor announced the nRF71 Series on November 3, 2026, introducing low-power chips built for battery-operated devices. The series combines Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE, Thread, application processing and on-device AI support in a single platform.
The first chips are the nRF7120 and nRF7120E. Both combine Wi-Fi, a 2.4 GHz multiprotocol radio and a host processor on one device, a design that removes the need for a separate host microcontroller. Nordic says this can simplify designs while reducing board space and component requirements.
The company also says the nRF71 Series delivers up to 20 times lower standby power than its current nRF70 Series Wi-Fi products. That difference targets devices that need to stay connected without allowing network standby power to dominate the battery budget.
A single device for Wi-Fi and multiprotocol connectivity
Nordic’s earlier nRF70 Series products were Wi-Fi companion ICs. Designers used them to add low-power Wi-Fi to products built around Nordic Bluetooth LE SoCs. The nRF71 architecture brings the Wi-Fi radio, multiprotocol radio and host processing together instead of requiring that separate arrangement.
Both new chips use a 256 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 application processor and an additional 256 MHz RISC-V coprocessor. The RISC-V unit handles real-time tasks and peripheral emulation, while the Cortex-M33 provides the application processor. Each chip also includes 4 MB of non-volatile memory and 1 MB of user-accessible RAM for wireless stacks, Matter, the customer application and firmware updates.
Nordic lists average connected current at DTIM 10 as 14 microamps at 2.4 GHz and 8 microamps at 5 GHz for both SoCs. In the nRF Connect SDK, Target Wake Time and Wi-Fi power save with a dedicated low-power receiver are enabled by default.
With those features active, a device can remain on the network while using little current between transmissions through existing infrastructure. That operating pattern supports Nordic’s battery-powered Wi-Fi approach: keep the connection available, but prevent standby use from taking over the power budget.
The nRF7120 supports dual-band Wi-Fi 6 at 2.4 and 5 GHz. The nRF7120E adds the 6 GHz band, giving it tri-band Wi-Fi 6E support. Both chips also support Matter and NFC, and both use the same nRF Connect SDK as Nordic’s nRF54 and nRF70 Series.
On-device AI without sending every workload to the cloud
The nRF7120E adds Nordic’s Axon neural processing unit, while the base nRF7120 has no dedicated AI accelerator. Nordic says the Axon NPU runs machine-learning models 10 to 17 times faster than the Cortex-M33 alone.
That processing capability makes keyword spotting, anomaly detection and image classification practical on battery-powered devices, according to Nordic. The nRF7120E can also run sensor-fusion and audio models locally, then transmit only the inference results over Wi-Fi.
That approach keeps the model workload on the chip and reduces the information that needs to travel over the network. The nRF7120 still has an on-device inference option without a dedicated accelerator: developers can build ultra-small models from their own data with Nordic’s Neuton software and run them on the application processor alone.
nRF Cloud supports over-the-air model updates, giving these devices a way to receive updated models after deployment. The available choices split the AI capabilities between the two chips: the nRF7120E includes the Axon NPU, while the nRF7120 uses its application processor for inference when paired with Neuton software.
Separate radios keep multiple connections active
The Wi-Fi and 2.4 GHz multiprotocol radios use independent RF and processing blocks, and they can receive simultaneously. A product can maintain its Wi-Fi connection to the cloud while continuing to listen for Bluetooth LE or Thread traffic.
This matters for products that need network access and local wireless communication at the same time. For Matter over Wi-Fi devices, Bluetooth LE handles commissioning while Wi-Fi provides network connectivity. Both chips support Matter, and Thread is part of the combined connectivity capabilities.
The nRF71 Series brings those radio functions, processing resources and on-device AI support into chips aimed at battery-operated devices. The nRF7120 provides dual-band Wi-Fi 6, while the nRF7120E adds 6 GHz Wi-Fi 6E and the Axon neural processing unit.
