Nintendo Switch might support Bluetooth headphones — why PS5 and Xbox Series X should too

Nintendo Switch might support Bluetooth headphones — why PS5 and Xbox Serial X should too

(Image credit: Future)

Later 4 years, the Nintendo Switch might finally permit you ditch headphone cables and adaptors and connect directly to Bluetooth headphones instead.

Earlier this week, dataminers establish evidence of Bluetooth support hidden deep within the Switch'south 12.0.0 firmware update. It should be noted that this doesn't actually confirm anything, of course. And fifty-fifty by enabling the Switch's Bluetooth driver, the update wouldn't unlock wireless headphone back up by itself. But the road is paved, and if Nintendo stays the course it could grant the Switch with a feature that it, forth with the PS5 and the Xbox Series X, should actually all have possessed since launch.

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Yes, none of the big three consoles simply permit you pair your favorite prepare of cans, at to the lowest degree not without some fumbling around with adaptors. And in 2021, where wireless headphones are a firm norm, that seems fairly ridiculous.

A wireless console — without wireless audio

Nintendo Switch — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

It's a particularly egregious error on the Switch, not to mention the portable-just Switch Lite. While the PS5 and Xbox Series X are more naturally suited to Tv set speakers and soundbars, the Switch is designed to go out and about, where headphones are necessary. And while it'due south the oldest of the three, it'southward non like information technology came out in the days of phonographs. Bluetooth headphones were already popular during the Switch'south development, and the original Apple AirPods was already making tiny true wireless earbuds into a very big deal.

The inclusion of Bluetooth drivers, in addition to the 3.5mm headphone jack, could be seen as future-proofing. Only in this instance the future had already arrived, and as encouraging equally this recent firmware update is, at the absolute best it's a bafflingly tardily attempt to play grab-upwards. "Just use a cable" isn't a very convincing alternative either: it would defeat the purpose of ownership a wireless pair of headphones in the first place. And some models, like the Apple tree AirPods Max, don't even include a 3.5mm cable.

The PS5 is in a similar land to the Switch: the only fashion to use Bluetooth headphones is by purchasing a USB adapter. This can, at least, plug relatively inconspicuously into the console; with the Switch, you'll have to behave it around with an unwieldy cake of plastic poking out of the headphone jack or USB-C port. The latter of which, don't forget, becomes inaccessible in docked mode.

But the PS5's "solution" is far from ideal. Besides requiring an adaptor purchase on top of the $499 panel, USB Bluetooth adaptors themselves can add lag — not a major trouble in single-role player games that the Switch is so addicted of, only in more competitive multiplayer games it tin can be a 18-carat disadvantage.

Microsoft'south walled garden

Where to buy Xbox Series X — (Image credit: Shutterstock)

So there's the Xbox Series X, which combines the worst of both worlds. Technically, the console itself doesn't back up Bluetooth at all, likely to protect Microsoft'southward proprietary Xbox Wireless protocol that information technology uses for controllers and headsets. You therefore need to plug your potentially lag-calculation adaptor into the 3.5mm jack on the controller, adding majority and weight to the simply handheld device in the system.

I appreciate if this sounds like the reverse of every argument virtually Apple ditching the headphone jack on the iPhone series. The irony of getting from "But not everyone has wireless headphones" to "But not everyone has wired headphones" is not lost.

Either way, here's the affair: both those arguments are valid. Ultimately, the trouble with the Switch, PS5 and Xbox Series X all lacking proper Bluetooth support comes downwardly to a absence of choice. If you're happy to plug in a 3.5mm cable to your Switch console or Xbox controller, great. But for millions of others, it would be quicker and easier to but pair over Bluetooth, a technology that's inexpensive to implement and available in headphones of almost all styles and prices.

To limit that choice tin only therefore exist the result of weird oversight or, I suspect, to incentivize sales of proprietary peripherals. Neither of which, given the accessibility and popularity of Bluetooth headphones, are good enough.

More: Our picks of the best wireless headphones

James is currently Hardware Editor at Rock Paper Shotgun, but earlier that was Audio Editor at Tom's Guide, where he covered headphones, speakers, soundbars and anything else that intentionally makes noise. A PC enthusiast, he also wrote computing and gaming news for TG, usually relating to how difficult it is to find graphics carte du jour stock.