The news didn't make headlines anywhere, but last month the Bluetooth Special Interest Group officially adopted Bluetooth 5.0 as the latest version of the technology.
This announcement means a lot more to tech companies than it does to consumers, at least in the short term. That's because headphone makers, speaker makers, and similar wireless accessory brands may start integrating Bluetooth 5.0 into their products. Now that 2017 has begun, you can expect to see Bluetooth 5.0 products hitting the market by the end of the year or sooner.
Does that mean you should stop buying Bluetooth products right now? Not necessarily. It depends on your needs. Let's start by exploring the new features brought by Bluetooth 5 and see if our wishes for this new Bluetooth version have come true.
Currently, if you search for Bluetooth speakers on Amazon, you will find that the majority of them promise a wireless range of up to 33 feet or 66 feet, or about 10 or 20 meters. It's been decent, but the call for increased reach has been loud and consistent over the years.
If you connect your Bluetooth speaker to your iPhone and then take your iPhone with you for walks around the house, chances are that by the time you get to the other side of your house it's lost the connection and the speaker has stopped playing music. I myself have experienced this several times.
Bluetooth 5.0 quadruples the range of its predecessor. It essentially promises full home coverage, so roaming and loss of connection is a thing of the past. The future is bright with a longer range. Hopefully that means you'll be in the kitchen with your phone and can start playing music from the speaker all the way to your bedroom. Maybe you listen to music with headphones connected to your laptop and now you can walk around and do work at home at the same time.
Bluetooth SIG also promises that version 5.0 is faster. This should just result in a faster connection and a stronger connection to your devices.
Bluetooth 5.0 increases "tetherless data streaming capacity by 800%" according to SIG. It sounds like PR jargon, but it ultimately means better sound quality is on the horizon. One issue that has plagued Bluetooth speakers and headphones since their inception is sound quality. It's improved a lot over the years, but still can't compare to wired sound.
Since Bluetooth 5.0 is able to hold and transmit a lot more data, it should be able to better preserve sound when it leaves the streaming device. If you stuck with wireless headphones because you preferred the clean, lossless sound of wired, you might consider trying headphones with Bluetooth 5.0.
None of this should come at the cost of battery life either, as Bluetooth 5.0 works with the same low-power connections. The GIS hopes that improved data streaming capability will also enable new generations of beacons, geolocation, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
Whether you should delay buying Bluetooth 4 devices depends on your priorities. If you really want improved sound quality and range, because it's necessary to fit your lifestyle, wait until Bluetooth 5 accessories arrive if possible. To be honest, most people are probably better off buying what they want right now.
Bluetooth 4 works great, and while Bluetooth 5 is on the way, it could be years before it becomes the mainstream standard.
Bluetooth 5 looks pretty impressive on paper – even if it doesn't quite tick everything on my wish list. Of course, right now none of us can get our hands on Bluetooth 5 devices. That's going to change quickly. Hopefully manufacturers take full advantage of all the new technology this new version of Bluetooth has to offer.
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