Earlier in the year we got a quick look Bluetooth 5 and what it would bring with it. We were promised four times the range, two times the speed and an 800% increase in initial broadcast packet size. The special interest group that looks after the Bluetooth standard (Bluetooth SIG) has today released the Bluetooth 5 core specification to the world bringing everything we expected plus a few extras.

The new specification does bring the expected four times range, two times speed, and eight times the broadcast message capacity while maintaining its low energy functionality. But as Duncan said earlier in the year, what does all this mean? The longer range powers whole home and building coverage for “more robust and reliable connections”. The higher speed enables more responsive, high-performance devices. The increased broadcast message size increases the data sent for improved and more context relevant solutions.

How is all this relevant? Can you say IoT? The update to Bluetooth 5 also oncludes features to help reduce interference from other wireless technologies meaning that Bluetooth 5 devices can coexist within the “increasingly complex global IoT environment”.

Bluetooth is revolutionizing how people experience the IoT. Bluetooth 5 continues to drive this revolution by delivering reliable IoT connections and mobilizing the adoption of beacons, which in turn will decrease connection barriers and enable a seamless IoT experience.
Mark Powell, Executive Director of the Bluetooth SIG

We can expect to see products built with Bluetooth 5 within two to six months of today’s release — just in time for Pixel XL MkII. Makes me wonder though if it is too late for devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S8 and the LG G6. Time will tell.

Source: Bluetooth SIG.
Via: 9to5Google.
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Phill Edwards

Struggling to see the “so what” in this.

John Bousattout

It would be interesting to see how feasible this is for internet sharing. How would this compare to wifi?