Bluetooth is going to get a lot faster in 2027
Bluetooth HDT's rollout will benefit a wide range of wireless devices and how they communicate.
Bluetooth is going to get a lot faster in 2027
Bluetooth HDT’s rollout will benefit a wide range of wireless devices and how they communicate.
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has announced its formal adoption of Bluetooth High Data Throughout (HDT), initially as an optional feature of Bluetooth Core 7.0. The first devices to utilize HDT are expected to arrive in early 2027 ahead of a wider rollout.
The new feature increases the maximum supported bit rate of 2Mbps to up to 7.5Mbps on Bluetooth LE devices, which is nearly four times higher. As the new Bluetooth connection is able to carry a lot more data in the same amount of time, the development will make higher quality wireless audio possible, as well as facilitating new spatial and multi-channel audio experiences.
The increased throughput should also see benefits to general efficiency and reliability, and with more bandwidth, the technology will play nicer with data-hungry AI applications and spatial computing devices. Even the less flashy stuff, like keeping your smartwatch firmware updated or syncing fitness data between devices, should be a much faster and less disruptive process. And remember that this would all be working with Bluetooth LE devices, which are already power-saving by nature compared to devices that maintain a continuous connection.
We now await announcements of the first wave of devices that will support Bluetooth HDT, which a betting person might expect to arrive at CES in January, if not before.