The Future of Seamless Audio According to Qualcomm

An exclusive interview with Dino Bekis, Qualcomm's Vice President and General Manager, Wearables & Mixed Signal Solutions Business Unit, where he shares fascinating insights into the company's roadmap and future developments, leveraging the best of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in wireless earbuds and headphones into a seamless, high-quality audio experience. We also learn about Qualcomm's unique vision for its latest generation Snapdragon Sound platforms, and XPAN technology, allowing wireless hi-res audio without bandwidth constraints or compromising battery life.

A year past since Qualcomm announced its S7 Pro Snapdragon Sound platform with micro-power Wi-Fi, Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi unveiled the new Xiaomi Buds 5 Pro Wi-Fi earbuds at MWC 2025. The brand designed a premium model with a triple coaxial driver system, hybrid active noise cancellation (ANC) up to 55dB, support for AI-powered transcription, and Qualcomm XPAN for direct connectivity to smartphones, enabling 24-bit/96kHz lossless audio with an expanded 4.2Mbps bandwidth.

Qualcomm S7 Pro, Micro-Power Wi-Fi, and XPAN Technology. An interview with John Turner, Senior Director, Product Management Voice and Music at Qualcomm Technologies International about the new Qualcomm S7 Pro platform that brings micro-power Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE Audio to TWS earbuds. The same battery life, much better quality, high-res lossless audio, longer range, same user experience as Bluetooth on TWS earbuds. How does it work?

What is like to explore audio technologies in the massive show that is Mobile World Congress. A report from MWC 2024 in Barcelona from an audio product development perspective. Audio for mobile platforms, wireless technologies, wearables and true wireless earbuds and hearables. And lot's of AI! MWC 2024 has nearly returned to pre-pandemic size levels, closing with 101,000 attendees from 205 countries.

During its Snapdragon Summit event Qualcomm unveiled the latest S7 and S7 Pro Gen1 Sound platforms, which will soon power a new generation of advanced audio products. The new platforms offer five times the compute power, three times the DSP processing power, and almost 100 times on-device AI processing power compared to the previous generation. A real differentiator is the use of micro-power Wi-Fi to extend wireless audio range and support for up to 192kHz lossless music quality in the S7 Pro.