Bluetooth 5.0, Should You Care? What it is and How it Works

You might have heard of Bluetooth 5.0 which debuted in the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+. Maybe you thought to yourself that it is just another small upgrade to the existing Bluetooth technology, but really, it is much more than that. Below is a detailed discussion on all you need to know about Bluetooth 5.0.

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What are the changes with Bluetooth 5.0?

With its 5^th generation, Bluetooth technology got a rather significant upgrade. They quadrupled the range and doubled the speed. Now, unfortunately, you don’t get both at the same time. Instead, you can decide whether you want the distance or the speed. You can use either Bluetooth at 4x range and normal speed, or in the normal range, at 2x speed.

Despite the fact that it might not seem very significant, it will be with most types of usage. For example, it will surely be used in the next generation of gaming consoles. Sony’s Playstation 4, for example, uses Bluetooth 4.1. The range is limited to 10 meters (30 feet), which could and should be improved. Imagine being able to play your games when you are 40 meters away from your console. This might not be very important for your particular setup, but it is useful when the console has to be hidden or far from the display.

Now, back to phones. The only phone that currently supports Bluetooth 5.0 is the Samsung Galaxy S8 and it’s bigger brother, the Galaxy S8+. For that, they have a feature that no other phone has, the ability to connect to 2 Bluetooth devices at once. While it might sound useless, it is useful if you give it more thought. It is definitely useful for audio streaming, as you can stream to 2 different Bluetooth speakers at the same time, but think about other situations.

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For example, what if you have a smartwatch? You are going to want it to be connected to your phone at all times, right? Well, if your device supports it, you can keep your phone connected to your smartwatch and connect a Bluetooth Speaker or Bluetooth Headphones to it at the same time. Personally, I would really find it useful, since not only my watch will be connected to my phone at the same time as my car. This is useful for many other people whose cars support Bluetooth Technology for phone calls, and have a smartwatch always on their wrists.

How does it work?

Bluetooth 5.0 works just like its predecessors. It uses a tiny wireless chip inside the device transmits waves, meet with other waves of the other device, creating a connection. With Bluetooth 5.0, the main changes occurred in the chip itself. It now supports more range, faster speed and is capable of connecting to 2 devices at once.

Unfortunately, Bluetooth has not provided us with much more information about how it works, so we have to do with what we have now.

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Should you care?

The answer to this question will probably depend on whether you actually read the whole article or not. If you did, then think about the previously mentioned situations. If any of them matches something you actually go through, such as the smartwatch and car situation, you probably should care. As mentioned, if you want to benefit from Bluetooth 5.0, the only device you can get right now is from Samsung. Don’t feel down, however. If you can’t afford a $800 phone, or if you just don’t like Samsung phones, fear not. Just give it some time, we will be getting many phones this year that support this technology.

For now, it will only be on flagship phones, but we are anticipating it to go slowly down to the mid-range and low-end phones. For now, here are some phones that will come soon with Bluetooth 5.0(most likely).

• The Google Pixel 2
• The Upcoming HTC Flagship
• The Huawei Mate 10
• The Samsung Galaxy Note 8
• The OnePlus 5

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Verdict

This technology is great, we use it every day, but it is so smooth going that we don’t notice it. We can’t wait to see it on more phones sooner than later. Do you like this technology? Be sure to tell us in the comments below what you think about it!