is a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.
My favorite kind of update is the one that gives my gadgets entirely new features and specs for free — and Microsoft is unleashing one of those today by bringing Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) Audio to its 2024 Xbox Wireless Headset, which unlocks a lot of those new features!
It could bring better battery life, lower latency, and perhaps most importantly, palatable voice chat when paired with Microsoft’s “Xbox” handhelds like the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X. (The older Bluetooth Classic mode requires more bandwidth than Bluetooth LE, so you typically see a big drop in audio quality with Bluetooth Classic when you try to add two-way voice communication to your audio stream.)
Microsoft actually branded that “don’t drop audio quality” idea back in August, calling it “super wideband stereo,” and any Bluetooth LE headset should be able to get you it in Windows 11 now. And, Bluetooth LE should also get you Microsoft’s new shared audio Insider Preview feature so your PC can stream audio to two sets of headphones (or headphones and speakers) at once. Super wideband isn’t ready for Xbox Ally quite yet though, it seems: “Coming soon to ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X,” reads the blog.
Yes, it’s only for the 2024 refreshed version of the headset, not the original 2021 version, but it’s quite the update for free. Maybe it’ll take some of the sting out of Microsoft’s price hike on these headsets; originally $99, they’ve cost $119 since May. (It may also help cement the idea that the next Xbox is probably a PC.)