Bluetooth 5 Coming Soon, Better Range, Speed, and Energy Usage

That little "B" icon at the top of your smartphone is getting an upgrade.

Bluetooth 5 is coming soon, and it'll be unveiled at a media event this June 16, 2016 (Thursday) at London. This iteration of Bluetooth is being worked on by the Bluetooth SIG (Special Interest Group).


What does this mean for us commercial users? It means better range (you can finally use your BT headphones 30 feet away, yay!), better transmission speeds (reportedly up to 4 times), and lower energy consumption—basically a more efficient version of Bluetooth 4.0. Additionally, it'll also be able to "provide significant new functionality for connectionless services like location-relevant information and navigation", meaning more Bluetooth-centric apps, and digital-to-physical engagements (and targeted ads, ughh) though the possibilities are endless.