Bluetooth Gets Faster, Goes Further

The next generation of Bluetooth has been confirmed. Boosts to speed, range and capacity could mean improvements to both smartwatches and home gadgets.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group, an industry body, has now officially adopted the Bluetooth 5 specification. The first devices to use the technology are expected early next year.

It’s the first completely new version of Bluetooth in five years, marking the longest gap between versions. In comparison to the current version (4.2), version 5 will offer twice the speed (2 Mbps compared with 1 Mbps) and four times the physical range.

It will also offer eight times the broadcasting message capacity, referring to the size of each data packet. The logic is that this means the same message can be split over fewer data packets, meaning devices spend less time handling the packets and thus making data transfer faster even at the same connection speed.

The new version also supports tools to detect and prevent interference between a Bluetooth transmission and nearby frequencies such as LTE.

Some of the most likely practical benefits include faster connections between phones and smartwatches or fitness bands, making more features practical. The added range may also make it more viable to use Bluetooth as the basis of a home network of smart devices.