Stefan Mileschin

Softbank spills the beans

None other than Softbank leaked the fact that Snapdragon 855, a chipset that will power the Galaxy S10 and other top Android phones in 2019 which will come with Snapdragon X50 5G NR modem.

The news came before this big shocking announcement that the US government ordered Broadcom to back off Qualcomm. Now Qualcomm can get back to what it knows best, make great SoCs that will power the best phones powered by Snapdragon.

The fact that Snapdragon 855 will have a 5G NR companion chip hardly comes as a surprise, but this is the first confirmation. The reason behind this is rather simple. Qualcomm executives were very vocal about the fact that the first generation of 5G NR will use the mixed 5G and 4G networks. This is what most carriers/telecoms will launch in the first wave in 2019 and later.

Therefore, the Snapdragon 855 will have to rely on Snapdragon 4G Gigabit modem, most likely the X20 with 2 Gbps speed, while Snapdragon X50 NR will take care of 5G speeds and connection. Bear in mind that depending on the territory, 5G can be as fast as 4.5 – 5Gbps already at launch. This would require a company to use millimeter waves and most US carriers plan to do so. To our knowledge, the first wave of 5G in Europe will focus on sub 6 GHz frequencies which means better coverage and easier obstacle penetration (indoors signal) but a slower speed.

https://fudzilla.com/news/mobile/458...5-to-marry-x50