Question Why is Bluetooth still so awful?

[tymal77]

My home wireless connection can stream 4K video to multiple devices at once. My GPU can stream video games to my iPad. But my $350 Bluetooth headphones can’t make or maintain a proper connection with any device I own. Switching devices, forget it. Why is this?
We’ve all used Bluetooth hardware for years. BT speakers are incredibly popular. Over time the standard has expanded, offering more throughput and utility. Except that every single Bluetooth device I have ever owned sucks and pairing and staying connected, from the cheapest speakers to the Bose QC II headphones I received from work. Last week I bought my wife the top recommended BT headphones(Sony h.ear on 2) from the Wirecutter because surely those would pass the minimum standard of pairing and staying paired with the two devices she uses. They do not.
Why is Bluetooth connectivity still so bad, when all other wireless protocols have gotten measurably and visibly better over the past decade? Why hasn’t a worthwhile successor been introduced? Does Apple’s W1 chip really make the difference for its devices? Why do we just accept that Bluetooth just kind of doesn’t work properly?

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Bluetooth works perfectly fine on my apple iPhone only disconnecting from my devices when the distance becomes very great. Stick to Apple and you’ll be happy

 

[Solandri]

Bluetooth uses the 2.4 GHz band. Pretty much everything else under the sun uses the 2.4 GHz band, including microwave ovens.

So how well Bluetooth works will depend on how much 2.4 GHz interference there is nearby. My Bluetooth devices (non-Apple) work fine up to about 20 ft away before they start experiencing dropouts. But I live in a single family house, and I deliberately use 5 GHz for WiFi instead of 2.4 GHz.