Qualcomm XPAN: as an alternative to Bluetooth, Wi-Fi headphones are coming “very soon”
When it comes to wireless music, Wi-Fi is superior to Bluetooth on various levels, whether in terms of transmission quality, stability or latency. Soundbars, wireless speakers, connected amplifiers and other home audio devices have already been using this connectivity for years to offer a superior listening experience, notably via the AirPlay 2 and Google Cast protocols. Aware of interest in the consumer audio market, Qualcomm seems to be in the process of democratizing the use of Wi-Fi in headphones true wireless.
Wi-Fi headphones come of age thanks to Qualcomm
This is not the first time that Qualcomm has mentioned this technology called XPAN. Indeed, it made it official in 2023 before announcing the marketing of the first compatible products in 2024. Nothing on the horizon since then, but the American firm confirms today to the media Android Authority that the first Wi-Fi headphones should see the light of day “very very soon“.
Without mentioning the manufacturers who will benefit from it or a precise date, Qualcomm is already touting the benefits of XPAN on its website. To establish such a Wi-Fi connection, headphones equipped with a Snapdragon S7X Gen 1 chip will be required to receive streams from a source (smartphone, tablet or computer) incorporating an XPAN-compatible Qualcomm processor. The primary advantage of Wi-Fi connectivity would be to allow much better music streaming than any Bluetooth connection, without loss or compression up to 24 bits / 192 kHz. LDAC and LC3, the best high-resolution Bluetooth codecs to date, are limited to 24 bits / 96 kHz.
An audiovisual latency close to that of a wired connection would be the second advantage of XPAN. We would obtain perfect synchronization between image and sound with any uncompensated content, particularly in a gaming setting. For comparison, few Bluetooth headphones manage to offer a latency lower than 100 ms. The range would obviously be greater than Bluetooth, while some popular technologies like spatial audio and multipoint could also be on the cards.
A simple complement to Bluetooth connectivity
The deployment of Wi-Fi connectivity within headphones would not overshadow Bluetooth, and Qualcomm has no interest in it. It would simply prove complementary to benefit from a better wireless listening experience near a router. In the context of common use, it will, for example, remain limited to the home or workplace. The headphones will switch to Bluetooth as soon as you pass the door of the building in which the Wi-Fi connection has been established. Furthermore, among the disadvantages, we suspect that Wi-Fi will impact the battery life of our headphones to a fairly large extent.
