Qualcomm Technologies on Wednesday announced the Qualcomm TrueWireless Stereo, its latest technological platform meant to enable next-generation wireless audio experiences. As was the case with previous iterations of the company’s wire-free solutions, the new platform isn’t just meant to make wearable audio devices capable of operating without a physical connection to their host but also infuse them with the ability to come in the form of two separate modules, i.e. earbuds. Instead of a “wired wireless” solution such as Google’s Pixel Buds, devices taking advantage of the Qualcomm TrueWireless Stereo platform can operate without any kind of wires, thus being functionally similar to products such as Samsung’s Gear IconX and Apple’s AirPods.
The solution relies on Qualcomm’s QCC5100 lineup of audio chips, being specifically optimized for energy-efficient performance that doesn’t compromise on Bluetooth audio quality, the company claims. Besides higher-resolution sound, the Qualcomm TrueWireless Stereo technology promises to facilitate the process of pairing a wireless device to a smartphone or another host by eliminating the need for individual pairing procedures even if the earbuds it’s supporting aren’t physically connected to each other. Reducing the overall energy consumption of supported devices has also been a priority during the platform’s development, the tech giant says, adding that its latest solution can individually manage a pair of earbuds so as to dynamically transition them between primary and secondary roles in order to balance their energy demands regardless of the content they’re playing and ensure one earbud doesn’t die before the other one.
The firm also launched the Qualcomm TrueWireless Stereo Plus, a dedicated pairing solution that’s part of the main platform and enables truly wireless earbuds to be connected to a compatible device simultaneously. When used in conjunction with a smartphone or another product powered by the Snapdragon 845 chip, the service can deliver around an hour of extra listening time, boosting its energy efficiency by approximately ten-percent, the company claims. Qualcomm’s latest audio technologies will be showcased at Barcelona, Spain-based MWC 2018 next week, together with the latest version of its on-device AI computing platform. The Snapdragon 845 is expected to be present inside the vast majority of Android flagships released over the course of 2018.