Bluetooth 5 To Be Announced Next Week, Bringing 2x Speed, 4x Range

Megalith

Megalith

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Bluetooth is pretty dependable but many wish their BT devices could move data faster or stay connected farther away, so these are very welcome improvements. There is no indication whether it will come to existing devices as a firmware update or require new hardware, but the latter is more likely.

Bluetooth 5, the next generation of Bluetooth standard, will be formally announced next week, offering quadruple the range and double the speed of the current low-energy wireless protocol. Executive director of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, Mark Powell, revealed the news in a published email sent to UK health and monitoring company Blue Maestro. The Bluetooth SIG, which is backed by Apple, Intel, and other major technology companies, will officially make the announcement on June 16 in London.
 
The question that is nagging my mind. Is this another radio wave that will eventually cause my penis to fall off?
 
The question I have is the effect on battery life. This would be great for my HTPC, as my couch is right on the edge of BT range. Not that I use it all that often, but still.
 
I hope this has enough bandwidth so that I can multi cast a single BT stream to more than one radio.
 
I'm hoping it addresses reliability. Maybe its just me, but I always seem to have bad luck with BluTooth devices. Can't tell you how many times I've had to reboot, reset, unpair, etc. I've had it with phones, keyboard, mice, remotes, cars (audio system), - you name it, I've had issues with it.
 
Upgrading itself into obsolescence is more like it. The whole point of BT is personal space, not lounge room space. But I suppose with that lack of understanding these days, its meaning is lost.

More range! More data transfer! Yea, it's called wifi.
 
At various power levels the current spec has a range up to 100 meters.

I wonder if they are changing the range at all power classes? If you can lower output power and still maintain the range of class 3 and 4 devices, it could mean better battery life for cell phones and headsets.

I would more interested in the alleged 400 meter range for class 1 devices for use with motorcycle/automotive communication systems.
 
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I just want it to have uninterrupted signal from my pocket to my ear when I decide to put my hand in my pocket over my phone.
 
My work phone sits charging on a shelf in my kitchen, about 30-40 feet away from my car outside in the driveway...every time I get in the car, the Bluetooth thing kicks on. I think it has plenty of range already.
 
My complaint with BLE is not the speeds it can support, but the speeds which the devices will support. Theoretically, BLE can send 20 bytes at 7.5ms intervals, for a speed of 2660KB/second. In reality, a lot of Android phones can only handle connections at 25ms/interval. I don't know whether it's a hardware problem or a problem with the Android BT stack, but it's certainly not to spec, and it's not consistent--some flagship devices *can* handle the full speed, but most cannot.
 
Just what we all need, further range to allow for easier ways to steal data from phones and other Bluetooth devices.
 
Mohonri said:
My complaint with BLE is not the speeds it can support, but the speeds which the devices will support. Theoretically, BLE can send 20 bytes at 7.5ms intervals, for a speed of 2660KB/second. In reality, a lot of Android phones can only handle connections at 25ms/interval. I don't know whether it's a hardware problem or a problem with the Android BT stack, but it's certainly not to spec, and it's not consistent--some flagship devices *can* handle the full speed, but most cannot.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I was thinking.
2x Speed, 4x Range, 8x the chance of random incompatibilities between these flashy new devices.
 
I very much dislike Bluetooth and have had nothing but issue after issue using it. I bought a nice pair of headphones to go with my nice phone, and even though the headphones and handset are no more than 2 feet apart, I still get stuttering audio, dropouts, disconnects, and sometimes I have to turn a certain way to get my audio to come back.

Fuck that noise, I just use wired headphones now, zero issues.
 
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