Samsung Galaxy S8, S8+ don’t use Bluetooth 5.0 technology yet, here’s why

Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ flagships are the first to support the latest Bluetooth 5.0 standard. All other major handsets (including flagships) still use the more-mainstream v4.2. But even with that, the S8 duo won’t be able to take advantage of Bluetooth v5.0, at least not until later this year. The new Bluetooth version was introduced last year . Detailed below is the reason for the same, as explained by Android Authority website.

Bluetooth v5.0 elements
At the time of its introduction last year, it was mentioned that Bluetooth v5.0 comes with 2x better connectivity speeds (up to 2Mbps) and 4x more range than v4.0. But as mentioned by Android Authority, both these features are inversely proportional to each other.

This means that enhanced connectivity speeds are only possible when devices with Bluetooth v5.0 are located close to each other.
As for the 4x long range, it’s only possible if the device has something called CODED connection. Although devices with Bluetooth v5.0 and CODED connection are capable of having 4x times the range, the quality delivered is with a low throughput of around 109Kbps.
So this means that with Bluetooth v5.0, you will get good connectivity when devices are close, but the quality will diminish with 4x the range.

The case with Samsung Galaxy S8
In case of Samsung Galaxy S8 , Android Authority was able to find out (from Bluetooth SIG’s website) that the smartphone indeed supports Bluetooth v5.0, but only with the 2Mbps connection speed and not CODED connection. This also means that the Galaxy S8 won’t support 4x Bluetooth range. The company has not officially responded (yet) to confirm the same.

Bluetooth v5.0 on Android O
At its recently concluded I/O 2017 developers’ conference, some of Google’s executives revealed that the upcoming OS – Android O – will supporting Bluetooth v5.0. It is already available as a developer preview and the source code has been published under the Android Open Source Project (AOSP).
The new OS will support both 2x connectivity speed and CODED connection for extended range.