Invented by Ericsson in 1994, Bluetooth is a wireless connection standard intended to connect disparate devices and transfer data over short distances.
The last major version of the standard, Bluetooth 4.0, was officially rolled out in 2011, while the last iterative update was Bluetooth 4.2 on December 2, 2014. Now it’s almost time for Bluetooth 5 to enter the stage.Here are the things you should know about Bluetooth 5
Things You need to know about Bluetooth 5
The next generation of technology Bluetooth 5 already has a date to make its appearance said Mark Powell, executive director of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, He said the new technology will be announced during the next week. Mark Powell also confirmed that the new Bluetooth 5 will be more powerful than the existing 4.2 version.
According to Mark Powell, Bluetooth 5 will be double the range of transmissions, and will also offer 4x speeds. However, the new update of Bluetooth will be named as “Bluetooth 5” and it will not have “5.0”,”5.1″ like the previous versions.
Mark Powell Said ” I’m pleased to tell you that on 16 June we will formally announce that the next version of Bluetooth will be marketed as “Bluetooth 5.” Veterans of the SIG will note that with this name we have droppedthe reference to both the version and point number in our marketing messaging.”
The significant new feature of new Bluetooth 5 is it will have the strength to operate larger “Advertising packets” which simply allow devices to send out bits of information to other Bluetooth devices, even if the two aren’t paired.
Bluetooth 5 will have double the range of existing versions and will have 4x more speed than of standard Bluetooth version as Mark Powell mentioned: ” it will double the range and quadruple the speed of low energy Bluetooth transmissions.”
Bluetooth 5 will also provide new features for connectionless services “Bluetooth 5 will further propel the adoption and deployment of beacons and location-based services to users around the world.” Said by Mark Powell.
Bluetooth 4.0 can be updated to the Bluetooth 4.1 or 4.2. However, according to the reports, Bluetooth 5 might need new hardware to work on. This indicates that Bluetooth-5 enabled handsets might appear later this year.