One thing people who play their Nintendo Switch system in handheld mode like to have handy is a pair of good Bluetooth earphones such as AirPods or AirPods Pro. The experience isn’t amazing on the current Nintendo Switch system but it looks set to improve with the upcoming release of the Nintendo Switch 2. The Switch 2 seems to support up to Bluetooth 5.2, which should provide a better more seamless connection with improved audio quality if you wish to use your system in handheld mode with Bluetooth headphones connected.
“Switch used BT v4.1. Like you mentioned, trying to use BT Audio while docked can cause various audio problems because the time slices of using it plus your controllers (which are also connected via BT when docked) are being saturated, and there’s a limited amount of bandwidth available. Starting with v4.0, BT opted for a Low Energy (LE) design, that while it cut power consumption by a LOT, it also ended up having some shortcoming in max bandwidth and whatnot. It was still an big improvement overall over the prior version.
With Switch 2, I believe the version is up to v5.2 according to the FCC filings, which is a substantial step up from v4.1, which when taking versions in between into account (v4.2, v5.0, v5.1) increases efficiency, bandwidth, packet size, range, and other things. v5.2 was a focus on improving the audio experience, particularly with the introduction of LE Audio, which increases audio quality, lowers latency (this makes me a fan already), is more power efficient, and utilizes less bandwidth than the existing SBC codec by using the newer LC3 codec. Unlike other wireless tech like Qualcomm’s aptX, LE Audio has no licensing fees. Nintendo loves these, much like with them having AV1 encode/decode video support.
Basically, Bluetooth audio will definitely be better on Switch 2 compared to Switch 1. But be aware that your BT device receiving from Switch 2 needs to be able to support it. A device that is limited to something like v4.2 won’t take the benefit of v5.2.”
