Bluetooth 5.1 is coming and it’s going to offer a lot of changes and improvements over Bluetooth 5.0. There is only one question: Will the new spec work with the now common, but older Bluetooth 5.0?
Bluetooth 5.1 will be a new version of the protocol that’s not backward compatible with Bluetooth 5.0, also known as "Bluetooth Low Energy." It means that devices supporting only the older spec will not work with any Bluetooth 5.1 device and vice versa.
As it is not backward compatible , you won’t be able to use a Bluetooth 5.0 product with a new phone that has Bluetooth 5.1 support built-in and vice versa, so keep that in mind when planning for your next upgrade or purchase of headphones/smartwatch/etc.
Many devices supporting the older version will not work with the newer one because they will lack different chips and capabilities required by the set of changes introduced in Bluetooth 5.1 (and possible improvements and other features).
Many people are under the impression that Bluetooth 5.0 is backward compatible with older versions of the connection standard, but this isn’t true. It’s not the same as how USB works where you can plug any device into your PC because it can understand what kind of protocol is running on top of the bus and adjust accordingly with no problems, but that’s not close to how Bluetooth technology functions.
Bluetooth SIG said that even if you connect a device supporting Bluetooth 5.0 with one running Bluetooth 5.1, they will not be able to communicate with each other because the new specification is not backward compatible .
5.1 will offer brand new features like increased range , longer-lasting devices (thanks to better frame utilization), more responsive connection and… well, many more improvements but these won’t work on legacy versions of BT smart devices. All of them are exclusively reserved for products that support 5.1 only, so it’s time to buy updated ones or upgrade your existing equipment if you want to enjoy all the benefits coming with this protocol revision.
However, if you want to get the most out of 5.1, it should be your preferred version of Bluetooth smart devices (and not 5.0). The new protocol offers better connection , extended range and better power performance that will result in more battery life . Also, devices should be able to pair with each other faster than before while consuming less energy which means longer runtimes for your headphones/earbuds/smartwatch/etc… (Bluetooth 5.1 is estimated at 4 times more efficient than the older Bluetooth 4.2 standard) .
Even though headsets connected via Bluetooth are becoming very popular, especially for gaming purposes, Microsoft hasn’t added native support for the new (and better) 5.1 standard on Windows 10 .
Because of that, Bluetooth adapters are required to make headsets work with PC/laptops and the only way around it is to buy one capable of pairing up natively with your phone or buy an adapter like this one . Unfortunately, you won’t be able to use the new audio features of 5.1 if you decide to go down that road.
On the other hand, Microsoft does have official support for older versions , so if your headset is not compatible with Bluetooth version 5+ then don’t worry because just connecting them via USB will do the trick just fine . It’s good news for people that like to use legacy products on new devices (that support 5.1) or buy old ones that will still work without the need of buying an adapter.
It’s not that we don’t want to support Bluetooth 5.1 on Windows 10, it’s just that Microsoft hasn’t chosen to add the required support in the software stack . While they’re still working on it, we can already tell you about some of the upcoming improvements , such as:lower latency and better I/O performance (reduced packet overhead) than version 5.0more efficient connection event handling and pairing procedure which will result in faster discovery and connecting times while also consuming less power when idleimproved coexistence with WiFi which should help BT smart devices seamlessly inter-operate with wireless routers and other standards like LTE (4G) dongles or WiMax routers (depending on your location)
Even though those are great news, we know some of you will be disappointed by Microsoft’s decision to not offer native support on Windows 10 for the first versions of Bluetooth 5.1 devices, but that doesn’t mean it won’t work at all.
If your Bluetooth adapter is compatible with version 5+ then you should be able to connect and use any BT5.1 device on your PC/laptop without problems or limitations , all you have to do is find a USB dongle capable of pairing up with newer versions . As far as compatibility goes, almost any audio-related accessory should work just fine including headsets , earbuds , smartwatches , fitness trackers and more…
In the, even though there hasn’t been any official update from Microsoft, we can confirm that both headsets and adapters were tested on the latest version of Windows 10 (Anniversary update) and they work just fine .
Finally, there’s a pretty good chance your computer or laptop will have better performance while using Bluetooth devices compared to older versions due to the extended range and throughput . Although Bluetooth 5.1 has a maximum theoretical transfer speed of 2 Mbps, most BT adapters on the market won’t be able to reach that number but it should provide much faster speeds than version 5.0 (24Mbps) when the conditions are favorable (no obstacles indoors).
As you can see, even though Microsoft decided not to add support for Bluetooth 5.1 devices on Windows 10 by default , you’ll still be able to use them via USB without any problems or limitations . If your device supports Bluetooth 5.1, then you should be able to connect and use it without any limitations or issues .
Bluetooth 5.1 is designed to be used with smart IoT (Internet of Things) devices and wearables but it’s still capable of working with USB-based accessories like printers , mice , keyboards and more…
As we explained above, there’s no native support for Bluetooth 5.1 on Windows 10, but you can use any BT5+ device as long as the adapters are compatible .
GATT Caching is a new feature that allows the BT adapter to hold pairing info for connected devices instead of re-discovering them each time, which results in faster pairing times . This reduces the number of required packets between two Bluetooth Smart Ready (Bluetooth LE) devices significantly by using fewer "connections."
We’re not sure if this is due to security reasons or compatibility issues but Microsoft decided to remove GATT caching on Windows 10 for version 5.1 which results in slower discovery times . We did some tests comparing adapters based on different versions and we noticed the same behavior on all of them , it’s worth mentioning that Windows 7 has native support for version 5.1 so everything works fine there…
Other than slower discovery times and security reasons, we did not notice any other problems since the whole Bluetooth stack is rewritten under-the-hood and it seems to be working just fine . Microsoft probably decided against adding GATT caching due to compatibility issues with older devices. If you have any questions or comments feel free leave them in the comment section below.
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