4 Key Differences : Bluetooth Classic Vs Bluetooth Smart Vs Bluetooth Smart Ready

At first, there was just Classic Bluetooth. Then, the Bluetooth 4.0 specification came along, heralding the world of BLE aka Bluetooth LE aka Bluetooth Low Energy. Bluetooth Smart Ready and Bluetooth Smart devices correspond to devices built around the Bluetooth 4.0 specification.

In a classic master-slave analogy, Bluetooth Smart Ready devices act as the “master” device that typically receives and adds meaning to the data it receives. Bluetooth Smart devices are typically devices that collect some useful sensor data (in a IOT scenario) and transmit it back to the “master” Bluetooth Smart Ready Device

For example, if you have a smart watch, it is likely to be a Bluetooth Smart Ready device that acts as the master device. The fitness band is likely to be one of the Bluetooth Smart devices that transmit important sensor data to the Bluetooth Smart ready smartwatch

Apart from being the “master” in the relationship, Bluetooth Smart Ready devices also have the ability to communicate with “Classic” Bluetooth devices, unlike Bluetooth Smart devices. Classic Bluetooth still have their advantages in headphones and other continuously streaming products. By communicating with both “newer” Bluetooth Smart devices and “Classic” Bluetooth devices, Bluetooth Smart Ready act as the ultimate master!

Just to confuse you further (or clarify things further), Bluetooth Smart devices can themselves operate in a master-slave mode. But there is only one master to rule them all, and that’s the Bluetooth Smart Ready device. In today’s world, the Bluetooth Smart Ready device is like to be a smartphone, a laptop computer or perhaps in a complicated industrial IOT scenario, even a server.