Bluetooth connectivity, in the field of sound, has undergone a spectacular evolution in recent years. I remember one time in the early to mid-2000s buying a Bluetooth headset to use with my phone at the time. I didn’t get to use them for even five minutes, because the sound quality was so, really so bad, and the latency so unacceptably high, that the experience could be described as a nightmare. And since then, for quite some time, I had quite a few reservations about this connection system.
My opinion began to change in 2017, when I installed a Parrot MKi 9100 handsfree in my car, which I have used ever since to make and receive calls and, above all, to listen to music. Things had already improved a lot, and we’re talking about Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and AVRCP. Now, at present, the quality of sound transmission via Bluetooth It is already fully satisfactory for the vast majority of needs.
When it comes to latency, the situation has also improved, but not as much as when it comes to quality. It is true that, as a general rule, this period of time is very low, but not so much that it is imperceptible. Thus, if you use Bluetooth headphones, it is possible that on more than one occasion you have perceived a slight gap between, for example, the moment in which you carry out an action in a game, and the moment in which you hear the sound associated with it. .
It seems, however, that this is very close to changing. And it is that, as we can read in a press release, the company has announced Qualcomm S3 Gen 2, which will allow devices compatible with Snapdragon Sound to see the latency of Bluetooth audio connections reduced to 20 milliseconds. For some context, let’s remember that many high-end headphones, like Apple’s AirPods Pro, range from 120 to 150 milliseconds, and that OnePlus claims its Buds Pro can hit 94 milliseconds.
This second generation Qualcomm S3 also supports streaming features LE Audio Auracast for dongles and adapters, which indicates that any type of device compatible with this technology (televisions, PCs, consoles, etc.) will be able to take advantage of this ultra-low latency. And in case you are wondering about the sound quality, it allows the transmission of content with a resolution of 24 bits and 96 kilohertz.
Although the first thing one thinks of when learning about technologies like this is, of course, the reproduction of music and sound associated with audiovisual content, Qualcomm focuses on the fact that Qualcomm S3 Gen 2 has also been designed with gaming in mind and that, therefore, they will also be able to take advantage of both low latency and high sound quality through the latest generation Bluetooth connections.
