Wifi and Bluetooth, widely used wireless communication methods. Both technologies use radio frequency to transmit and receive data between the sender and receiver device. The main difference between Wifi and Bluetooth is the purpose of applications and designing. Bluetooth is designed to use in short-range, low speed, and very low power consumption devices such as wireless headphones, TV remotes, etc. and on the other hand WIFI is used where we need high-speed data transfer between multiple devices such as internet routers, networking. Etc.
Another big difference is you can connect only limited devices with Bluetooth and in Wifi case you can connect multiple devices. Bluetooth is used where speed is not the main concern such as wireless headphones. Bluetooth latest version support up to 25 Mbps that is more than enough to transfer music to a wireless headphone. On the other hand, Wifi supports speed between 300-450 Mbps, depends on the hardware. Which is way higher than Bluetooth.
Here are some key facts of Wifi and Bluetooth:
1) Bandwidth:
Bluetooth has a low bandwidth (up to 25 Mbps) for example If you tether your mobile internet through Bluetooth to your laptop or computer, you’ll get at max 25 Mbps speed.
Wifi has a high bandwidth (up to 450 Mbps). In wifi tethering, if you have a high-speed connection of 200-300 Mbps you can easily enjoy the max speed transfer through Wifi technology.
2) Ease of Use:
In Bluetooth, you can easily pair and switch devices but in Wifi, you have to configure hardware and software to do so. Both devices switch connections automatically to the strongest network unless you have a password-protected Wifi network.
3) Range:
Bluetooth can work up to 10 meters and Wifi can work up to 100 meters. Which is way higher than Bluetooth. If you want more area to cover you can use Wifi boosters, this way you can cover more than 100 meters range but you can’t extend the range of Bluetooth device as of now.
4) Security:
Bluetooth has very little security as compared to Wifi. Bluetooth uses a 128-bit random number, 48 bit Mac Address, and two authentication keys. On the other hand, Wifi used the open system and shared key authentication. Shared key authentication provides a great amount of security and a 40-bit secret code that is shared between IP and device itself.
5) Power Consumption:
Bluetooth consumes between 0.01 to 0.5 W power and Wifi, on the other hand, uses between 2 to 20 W as per consumption of use.
6) Flexibility:
Bluetooth supports a limited number of users. The max you can connect is seven devices as of now and in Wifi, you can connect up to 250 devices with the same router as of 2020.
Conclusion:
Both technologies have their own advantages and disadvantages. Both use the radio frequency to make a wireless connection between user and client device.
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