Bluetooth LE Audio was announced in early 2020, and initially the Bluetooth SIG hoped that devices with its support would come out by then. However, there was a significant delay due to the pandemic. As a result, Bluetooth LE Audio is only now available to manufacturers. This means that the first compatible products should go on sale before the end of the year.
Bluetooth LE Audio features a new LC3 audio codec. It will provide higher quality audio at the same bitrate than the existing basic SBC codec. Lower data rate means lower power consumption which should result in longer battery life.
Another important aspect of Bluetooth LE Audio is that it can connect multiple audio devices to a single source using Auracast. So it will be possible to connect two pairs of headphones to one phone. In addition, Bluetooth LE Audio allows each earphone to establish a separate connection with the source device.
Thanks to innovation, we will have a new era of wireless headphones. But at the moment it is not clear whether we will need to buy brand new devices or whether the upgrade will suffice.
Source: Ferra
