Ask HN: Why does Bluetooth still suck? - akvm
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PaulHoule
Interference from wifi, marketing based on looks or numbers instead of real
world performance, apathy, also a lack of diversity reception on headphones.

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akvm
Could you please elaborate on interference with WiFi?

What exactly do you mean by diversity reception?

Why is a simple device handshake such a pain sometimes?

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PaulHoule
WiFi and Bluetooth use the same 2.4 Ghz frequencies. Today there are more WiFi
hotspots than ever before, sometimes they use double or triple channels, etc.

Usually Bluetooth is degraded more by WiFi than the other way around. The
problems are particular bad if the WiFi radio is near a bluetooth radio and
can be worst if both of those are in the same device.

Quality electronics, proper antennas, and proper firmware behavior all help,
but often WiFi and Bluetooth can conflict for the same device. My Nexus 7
cannot connect to both at the same time, for instance. On my computer,
listening to music through Bluetooth works better (in terms of range,
dropouts) if I am on Ethernet instead of WiFi.

You start getting dropouts on headphones when you move your head to a
position/angle which is particularly bad (you could lose 20 decibels, or a
factor of 100, easily that way.)

Diversity reception solves that problem by having two or more antenna and
choosing the best the signal.

