On the headphones side, the Kickstarter-funded Anker Zolo Liberty+ was the first pair to support Bluetooth 5.0, back in 2017. The Samsung Galaxy S8 was the first phone to work with the technology in 2017, followed by the bigger Galaxy S8 Plus and Note 8 but, as you can see, they've since been joined by a plethora of smartphones. It's also in several wireless headphones, including the excellent Shure Aonic Free, Cambridge Audio Melomania 1+, Apple AirPods Max and Apple AirPods 3. Which devices are compatible with Bluetooth 5.0?Īpple's latest iPhone 13 (and all iPhones since iPhone 8) supports Bluetooth 5 (Image credit: Apple)ĭespite being seven years old, Bluetooth 5.0 is still very common – you'll find it in every Apple smartphone from the iPhone 8 up to the iPhone 13 (but not the iPhone 14 or 15, as you'll see below). This should make for clearer music listening from any wireless device. If your device has the right functionality (like Samsung's Bluetooth Dual Audio feature) you can adjust the volume of each independently too – very handy for sharing during journeys by train or plane.īluetooth 5.0 also means that Bluetooth speakers can stereo pair (think Tribit Stormbox Micro and Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2) with a dedicated left and right channel, but playing music from one source.īluetooth 5.0 can even detect interference at the edges of the 2.4GHz and neighbouring LTE bands, and automatically prevent it. You can also connect more than one pair of wireless headphones to a single sound source over Bluetooth thanks to Dual Audio, which made its first appearance in Bluetooth 5.0. In other words, expect greater wireless connectivity wherever you go, from sports stadia to shopping centres. In reality, walls and obstacles will impinge on those figures slightly, but it's still a huge upgrade regardless, and it allows for whole-home coverage for Internet of Things devices such as security cameras, smart fridges, smart thermostats and more.Īnd because of its more efficient use of broadcasting channels on the increasingly popular 2.4GHz band, it opens the way for "richer connectionless, beacon-based Bluetooth solutions", according to the SIG. Thanks to the greater range of around 800 feet (or 240m, up from 60m/200ft in Bluetooth 4.2), your wireless speakers and headphones should work much further away from the sound source than with Bluetooth 4.2 Low Energy. In practice, this means speedy and reliable over-the-air connectivity, leading to faster firmware updates and data uploading. If you want hard stats, we're talking a bandwidth of 2Mbps. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 (pictured) has Bluetooth 5.2 (Image credit: Future)Ĭompared to its predecessor, Bluetooth 4.2 Low Energy, Bluetooth 5.0 is twice as fast, has four times the range and can transfer eight times as much data. However, Bluetooth 5.3 is far from standard on new products, with recent devices like the Sony WH-1000MX5, Apple HomePod 2 and Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3 running Bluetooth 5.2 or earlier. It's found in the latest (usually higher-end) devices like the iPhone 15 family, Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, and Apple AirPods Pro 2. Bluetooth 5.3 is the most advanced version yet – its benefits include greater energy efficiency (meaning longer battery life), a more stable wireless connection over long ranges, and less interference. It also lets you ping tunes from your music source (often, this is your smartphone) to a wireless speaker so you can listen to music out loud at home, in the park or on the beach.įor the purposes of this piece, we're glossing over early iterations of Bluetooth, because if you're shopping for a new budget-friendly speaker or set of wireless earbuds today, the oldest version of Bluetooth you're likely to see on the spec-sheet is 4.2, which was released in 2014. Although an older variant, it is still found in some quality products, often as a secondary option to streaming over wi-fi – see the What Hi-Fi? Award-winning Audio Pro Addon C10 MkII.įrom v4.2, we move to Bluetooth 5.0 (released in 2016), version 5.1 (January 2019), version 5.2 (December 2019) and most recently, Bluetooth 5.3, which was unveiled on 13th July 2021. Bluetooth, as you probably know, lets your devices talk to each other wirelessly without an internet connection – as long as they're relatively close by.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |