Samsung may not have made it clear, but it would seem that the Galaxy S8 is the first smartphone to sport Bluetooth 5. While it doesn’t sound impressive, the upgrade gives the S8 doubles the speed of Bluetooth 4.2 connections and quadruples the range.
This means that the Galaxy S8 and S8+ have Bluetooth connections capable of speeds up to 2Mbps, and ranges of up to 240 metres. According to the Bluetooth SIG, this increased speed also translates into more power efficiency, as it takes less time to transmit data over the connection.
Interestingly, this also means that the Galaxy S8 and S8+ are capable of supporting two wireless headphones at the same time. It’s difficult to say how useful this feature will be, but it’s there for those who want to share their music with specifically one other person.
