As more and more audio products get released, they get newer and newer tech that delivers improved listening experiences to users. But most of the time, this needs not only the audio product, but also the connected sound source device, to support said tech. And that’s the problem that Qualcomm intends to address, with its concept USB dongle.
The dongle is packed with the company’s latest tech in Bluetooth audio, including LE Audio and Auracast. All this is done via the Qualcomm S3 Gen 2 Snapdragon Sound chip. When plugged into a source device, this dongle basically gives said source device access to all the tech that the chip has to offer. This means that the source device now gets access to aptX Adaptive as well as sub-20ms latency.
TechRadar reports that Qualcomm has a particular focus on gamers with this conceptual dongle. Which makes sense, as that’s where the benefits of low latency wireless audio is most felt. Though naturally, any old sound source device can benefit from this, provided they have a USB port for the dongle to be plugged into.
All that being said, when this finally exits the concept stage and into the consumer market, it won’t necessarily be in the form of a dongle. According to the report, Qualcomm intends to integrate the tech into the charging case of TWS buds instead. This means that you plug the charging case into the sound source device, granting it new tech that it didn’t initially come with. An actual dongle may instead come as an optional extra accessory, and you’ll want more than a few of those if you want to make use of Auracast.
No word on when this will actually happen. For what it’s worth, the report states that Qualcomm “is in talks with various manufacturers now”.
(Source: TechRadar)
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