USB-BT500 USB Adapter with Ultra Small Design, Bluetooth 5, Backward Compatible with Bluetooth®2.1/3.x/4.x, TAA Compliant (USB-BT500)

I picked up the ASUS USB-BT400 Bluetooth adapter way back in 2018, and honestly, it’s still running perfectly in 2026. I’ve built and upgraded a lot of PCs, and this little adapter just keeps working. Connectivity is solid—I haven’t had issues with my headphones, headsets, mice, or controllers dropping out. Everything just pairs up and works, even when I’m swapping devices around for gaming or work. The only exception is my Fire tablet, but that’s not really the adapter’s fault. Some devices have built-in security (like locked bootloaders or pairing restrictions), so they just won’t connect to anything that’s not an approved peripheral. That’s a tablet-side thing, not a problem with the ASUS adapter. Latency has never been an issue for me, even with my high-DPI Razer Basilisk gaming mouse. No noticeable lag, even when I’m gaming or moving between devices. If you’re chasing the absolute lowest latency for competitive gaming, maybe a Bluetooth 5.0 adapter would have an edge, but for my setup, this one is honestly great. I don’t see a strong reason to upgrade when everything just works. It is a great value, it's supported by windows out of the box, it's very small too. The adapter is still going strong after years of daily use, no defects, no weird disconnects, nothing. It’s just a solid, reliable piece of hardware. For anyone needing Bluetooth on a desktop or upgrading an older PC, I definitely recommend it. Still using mine in my current rig and it hasn’t let me down. PC builder, gamer, and tech junkie approved!

Works great with my google pixel buds. I tried a different USB adapter that gave me more range, but terrible audio quality. This adapter on the other hand has a range of maybe 15 feet, but excellent audio quality for my wireless ear buds. And it also works on linux!

I bought this to interact specifically with ble 5.0 devices from my PC and possibly some SBCs. This was a huge pain to install but here's what I did which will hopefully spare someone else the agony. The documentation on the Asus site is pretty abhorrent. It's mostly Windows oriented, and even for Windows the documentation is awful and you are pretty much on your own. It's a "plug and pray" situation with this thing until you get it setup correctly. Yes, it's supported in Linux so should work on Raspberry Pi as well. Once it's running it's actually really nice so far. Also the drivers include the source which is a win. How I got it working (old Ubuntu 18.04 with kernel version 5.4.0): First, download the driver from the Asus website. Second, blacklist all default bt drivers by creating the file /etc/modprobe.d/bluetooth-blacklist.conf then add this to it: blacklist btrtl blacklist btusb blacklist btintel blacklist btbcm This was necessary for me as the two devices were fighting for attention so to speak. It may not be needed for you (you can skip this and try it later if needed). Third, reload the kernel module settings (part of the above step): sudo systemctl restart systemd-modules-load.service Note that you will probably lose your bluetooth control panel, but you can undo this later by deleting the conf file then reloading the settings again. Fourth, install the driver after unzipping it and cd'ing to the folder: sudo make install INTERFACE=usb Fifth, you must copy the firmware to the correct location. Go into the folder /rtkbt-firmware/lib/firmware inside the driver folder and copy these two files to /lib/firmware/ on your system: rtl8761bu_config rtl8761bu_fw Now see if the device is listed: hciconfig -a the device should appear there. If not, unplug the device then turn bluetooth off then on. Depending on your distro, it could one of these (Deb/Ubuntu/fedora): sudo service bluetooth stop sudo systemctl stop bluetooth Plug it back in, run hciconfig -a again and it should be working. If still nothing, run: lsmod | grep bluetooth and see if 'rtk_btusb' is listed next to bluetooth (with some others, probably). If so then the driver is probably installed. Now let's see if your firmware is correct: Type dmesg and see if there are any errors there. If you are seeing a cryptic message in dmesg like: rtk_btusb: fw name is rtl8761bu_fw rtk_btusb: This is not 8723a, use new patch style! then the firmware has not been copied to the correct folder which will prevent it from working. Locate the correct firmware folder for your distro then redo the steps from that point again. Hopefully it should be running now. Now you can play with it in bluetoothctl. Type bluetoothctl then type scan on and see if there are any devices. Type help for a list of commands... have fun! If all else has failed, remember to register your device on the Asus website then you should be eligible for support (didn't try this, your mileage may vary).

So like everything... it's not perfect. But given the price point, I'm not complaining. Just to be clear so people have complained about streaming audio from this unit, and that is not something I have done, so if you are looking for an opinion on that you can stop reading now. My prior BT adapter (non-ASUS) always had problems keeping the connection to my BT Keyboard. And I would have to unplug it and plug it back in. This was a horrible inconvenience. This unit does not have that problem at all, which is the biggest reason I like it, but some of the other features have been great as well. While I haven't streamed audio from the unit, I do use it to stream audio to it. And this works fantastic. I really like the ability to use my phone to stream audio. Been great for listening to web radio. However, it is a little annoying when a phone call comes in, because it will want you to use the unit as a speakerphone, which is an issue since I don't have a mic on this PC. The proximity locking feature is also nice. Set it to automatically lock your PC when your phone is out of the specified range (3 settings, Close, Very close, and Intimate) It's nice, but a little too sensitive. I found that if I use my phone to do other tasks it will lock my PC. So I am not using this feature anymore. It also says it will allow you to send and receive text messages via the ASUS software. I don't know if this works for anyone, but I have an iPhone 5, and it does not work at all. Not a big deal though, but it is annoying when you have something that doesn't work like it says it would. But this is likely an Apple issue, and not an ASUS issue. Overall I am very pleased with this unit and would highly recommend it. I would give it 5 stars, if it didn't try to hijack my phone calls when I am streaming audio to it. The hardware is great, the software needs a little tweaking.

It does its job and is perfect. I am a little clueless when it comes to setting up computer technology but did the easy bits ( inserted disc, clicked run, finish etc ) and the fine tuning was done by ASUS support. Forget the negative feedback regarding this product (I use Windows 7 & no issues, laptop in one room speaker in another so range good ) Very happy thanks Asus.

Es muy fácil de instalar en Windows 10, es bastante con compatible con los dispositivos lo probé con mando de PS4 de segunda generación, una bocina echo con Alexa de Amazon y unos audífonos headsets inalambricos y funciona muy bien lo recomiendo mucho sobretodo si es para jugar con un mando y oír música

Después de comprar más de 5 adaptadores chinos, me decidí a comprar un buen adaptador de marca. Este adaptador BT Asus es excelente. La señal es fuerte y de buen alcance, no hay Lag, no hay desconexiones. Lo utilizo para mi control 8bitDo Pro 2 y funciona de maravilla.

I'm using this on my desktop PC for my Bose QC 35 II and Xbox One controller. The Bose have about 100ms of latency or so which is because of the headphones themselves, not usable wirelessly for gaming because of this reason. Fine for anything else, just adjust your audio sync by -0.1s in your video player. The controller works very well. Hard to tell, but I think there's about 10ms input lag which is about to same when it's wired. Win win.

Works beautifully with my Linux desktop, allows me to connect my Bluetooth headset, and has pretty decent range for such a small adapter.