If you been off the grid for the past 48 hours, I'm here to inform you that Samsung just released to market their newest flagship smartphone for consumer purchase, which by the way is the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus. Now I can utter long winded praises of amazement on the devices features and design, but I'll leave that for another time.
Speaking of which, there is one feature that seems to be flying under the radar, and that's Samsung introducing Bluetooth 5.0 to their Galaxy S8 and S8-Plus, the only devices on the planet, the first to have such technology.
In this installment of Explanation Needed, rather than explain what Bluetooth 5.0, I'll take a different approach and list 5 things you need to know.
Increase Range Times x 4
Bluetooth 4.0 ideally is suppose to in theory in direct line of sight have a signal range that maxes out at 200*feet, but lets deal in reality here, depending on the device you're using you'll usually get signal range up to 30*feet max. With Bluetooth 5.0 it will double the range, with claims up to an astounding 1500 feet.
4x Times The Speed
Data transfer will be twice as fast as version 4.2, increasing data transfer by almost 800%. Its speed will almost rival what WiFi-Direct have to offer, promising speeds up to 250 Mbps.
Improve Location Information
Bluetooth 5.0 will add more navigational features that will act as a indoor beacon, this means it will have increase location awareness offering new function for numerous amount of services. No longer will there be a need to rely on software or resort to settings on your device to connect to Bluetooth transmission.
Advertised packets
No, not commercial ads, it's advertising that will aid users to easily identify, detect and connect to other Bluetooth devices. Currently Bluetooth emits 47 bytes of data packet and includes the name and device type. With Bluetooth 5.0 you'll have increase packet size that will enable more information to be shared among other devices that is Bluetooth ready.
The Need For New Hardware
Far as I know the Galaxy S8 and S8-Plus are the only the devices of its kind that is enabled with Bluetooth 5.0. Most devices, that includes headphones, wireless speakers, and of course smartphones are still rocking Bluetooth 4.0. Thus far I haven't read any reports on whether Bluetooth 5 will ever be backward compatible with much older Bluetooth devices. Currently Bluetooth 4.0 devices can be updated to Bluetooth 4.1 or 4.2 via firmware updates. There maybe a need to do a full implementation of new hardware in order for Bluetooth 5.0 to fully exist on all devices. Bluetooth 5.0 enabled devices may appear late this year or early next year.