A few days ago, rumours of the HTC U11 (review) tasting Bluetooth 5.0 surfaced into the limelight. It was known that the U11’s hardware is capable of utilising the faster Bluetooth standard but had been limited by the software. Now, HTC has confirmed the same in an official statement, however with a catch.
HTC claims that the U11’s hardware has the capability to utilise the latest Bluetooth 5.0 standard. Therefore, all it would need users to enjoy faster device-to-device transferring speeds is wait for an update from HTC. The Taiwanese smartphone giant will release the Bluetooth 5.0 update along with the Android 8.0 update, which is scheduled to hit the U11 sometime later in the U11’s lifecycle.
HTC says that U11 won’t even need a firmware update for Bluetooth 5.0. However, the company hasn’t given out any details on the rollout of the next Android update. Compared to the Bluetooth 4.0, the bandwidth speed is double at 2.1Mbps, the range improved by four times and enhanced support for long-range Bluetooth low energy devices like smartwatches and fitness bands.
With this update, the U11 will join the exclusive Bluetooth 5.0 club of the Samsung Galaxy S8 (review), OnePlus 5 (review), Sony Xperia XZ Premium and Xiaomi Mi 6. If you own an HTC U11, then keep looking for HTC’s announcement for the Android 8.0 update.
