The Bluetooth Special Interest Group announced version 6.0 of the near-ubiquitous wireless technology in Sept. 2024, adding some major new features that aim to improve Bluetooth's reliability, security, smoothness and efficiency. It might even get you a greater range between your headphones and phone, as well as longer battery life.
We're finally seeing devices arrive with Bluetooth 6.0, including phones from Apple and Google, as well as headphones and earbuds. Here's what you need to know about Bluetooth 6.0 and how it will affect wireless connectivity for years to come.
Main improvements of Bluetooth 6.0
Gettyimages/LuisAlvarez
Latency
Latency is the time between an audio signal being sent and when you actually hear it. The higher the latency, the more annoying it can be -- think of when the sound lags behind the video in movies or games. Most Bluetooth (5.0 and newer) devices have latency somewhere between 50 to 100 milliseconds, depending on gear and configuration, which is noticeable to most people.
Bluetooth 6.0's new isochronous adaptive layer, or ISOAL, allows devices to break up audio data into smaller chunks for quicker processing. In theory, this has the potential to reduce latency, and it's possible that we might see latency under 10 milliseconds under ideal conditions, such as close range, no obstacles and no interference.
We expect that under real-world conditions, the majority of setups will operate at a latency of around 20 milliseconds, which would still represent a significant improvement over Bluetooth 5.x.
Location tracking and security
Bluetooth SIG
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