What Is the Purpose of Having Bluetooth on a Laptop Computer?

Bluetooth is a short-ranged wireless protocol, connecting peripherals and electronic devices. When first introduced, Bluetooth on laptops required a separate dongle that plugged into a USB port. Like Wi-Fi connectivity, Bluetooth is now a standard laptop feature. Bluetooth devices support several different profiles, such as "A2DP" for stereo audio, "Handsfree" for phone headsets and "Print" for printers.



Peripheral Connection
Connecting peripherals such as a headset or mouse is the major reason Bluetooth is installed on laptops and on other electronic devices. Wireless connections mean that the mouse can be used on any convenient surface without having to worry about dragging a USB cable around. A wireless headset enables you to talk and listen to content on the computer while moving around the room, just like wireless headsets for smartphones.

Cell Phone Connection
Many smartphones and carrier plans allow the phone to act as a mobile Internet connection point for a computer. Connecting the phone to the laptop via Bluetooth is a fairly common way to go. Bluetooth can also be used for short range ad hoc networking to other devices, like printers and portable hard drives.

Technical Specifications
Bluetooth has a very limited range, with most devices (Class 3) having ranges of about three feet, and Class 2 devices going about 33 feet. Bluetooth uses the same 2.4 GHz bands as do cordless phones and Wi-Fi routers. Like those devices, it will do frequency hopping to avoid interference, but even so, other devices with strong signals can cause interference or low bandwidth connections. Most Bluetooth peripherals -- other than cell phones used for Internet connections -- won't have noticeable performance degradation.

Battery Life
Bluetooth devices require power to broadcast; they can passively receive signals with much less power. Bluetooth's emphasis on low power, low range operations makes it less of a battery drain than a dedicated 3G or 4G wireless card or a Wi-Fi connection. Even so, if you're not using Bluetooth to connect to any devices, you can get a few minutes of extra laptop battery life by turning it off.



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