Upgrade to Bluetooth 5.0?

Hello Ian,

Thank you for your answer. I now have a MacBook Pro 13” (early 2011). It has 2.0 Bluetooth at the moment. Can I change the card inside to a 5.0 card or a 4.2? Or is it only possible to change that airport card to 4.0?

Yes, if you get a later card that supports it and fits in your mac. There's guide of the replacement here:MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Early 2011 AirPort/Bluetooth Board Replacement. I don't think you can get a card that supports beyond 4.0 from what I've seen.

@ian_ Is correct! You can go to Bluetooth 4.0 MacBook Pro Unibody (Early 2011-Mid 2012) AirPort/Bluetooth Board

There was a point you could have upgraded your internal AirPort board a few years ago to 4.1 for HandOff support. Broadcom did create a board that was a direct drop in. Sadly, it was an engineering run that no one picked up and Broadcom only did a limited run and that was it!

Given the connector interface used in this system is now no longer being used by Broadcom I don't see any 5.0 Bluetooth support ever coming to the older Mac's internally.

Ian and Dan,

Thank you for taking the time to answer. This is most helpful!

I would like to add that sadly both parts of this answer is sadly no longer true. I just bought a new pair of Audio-Technica bluetooth headphones, and (1) they support 5.0 but NOT 4.2, and (2) I haven't found ANY external USB 5.0 dongle that is compatible with Mac, and I've spend dozens of hours searching. :( This may be an increasing problem in the future. Even my iPad Pro only has 4.2.