Bluetooth 5
Bluetooth · 7 specs
Direct Answer
Bluetooth 5 (encompassing v5.0 through v5.3) significantly expanded Bluetooth Low Energy with 2 Mbps high-speed (2M PHY), up to 4x range extension via forward error-corrected Long Range (Coded PHY), 8x advertising broadcast capacity (Advertising Extensions), and Isochronous Channels (v5.2).
Source: Bluetooth SIG Core Specification v5.0 / v5.1 / v5.2 / v5.3 · Last reviewed Aug 28, 2026
Specs
| Bluetooth Versions | v5.0 (2016), v5.1 (2019), v5.2 (2020), v5.3 (2021) |
| 2M High-Speed PHY | 2 Mbps (halves transmission on-air time) |
| LE Coded Long Range PHY | 500 kbps (S=2) / 125 kbps (S=8, 4x range, up to 1km line of sight) |
| Advertising Payload Capacity | 255 bytes (up from 31 bytes via secondary channels) |
| Direction Finding (v5.1) | Angle of Arrival (AoA) and Angle of Departure (AoD) |
| Isochronous Channels (v5.2) | Time-synchronized streams for LE Audio |
| Connection Subrating (v5.3) | Fast switching between low-latency and low-power states |
2M PHY and Coded PHY Modes
Bluetooth 5 introduced two major physical layer options:
- 2M PHY: Doubles symbol rate to 2 Msym/s, delivering up to 1.4 Mbps effective throughput and cutting radio transmit time in half to save battery.
- LE Coded PHY: Utilizes Forward Error Correction (FEC) with spreading factors of S=2 (500 kbps) or S=8 (125 kbps), boosting link budget by up to 12 dB and extending reliable range past 800–1,000 meters in open air.
Direction Finding and Advertising Extensions
Bluetooth 5.1 introduced Direction Finding using Angle of Arrival (AoA) and Angle of Departure (AoD) with multi-antenna arrays, enabling sub-meter indoor positioning. Advertising Extensions moved auxiliary data packets from the 3 congested primary advertising channels onto the 37 data channels.