Qualcomm's 5G Modem is Coming To Midrange Phones Next Year

Qualcomm will integrate 5G connectivity into its 6- and 7-series chipsets starting next year alongside its flagship 8-series processors, the company announced at IFA today. From a report: Qualcomm says that these chips will support a full range of 5G technologies, including being able to connect to sub-6Ghz and mmWave spectrums. Today's announcement means that it won't just be flagship phones that will get an integrated 5G modem; it will also come to the kinds of processors that are used in more midrange and budget devices. Starting next year, we should start to see 5G move beyond expensive flagship devices like the OnePlus 7 Pro and Samsung Galaxy Note 10 that made up much of the first wave of 5G device releases.

Great so Apple users get 5G now

[BrainJunkie]

At least Apple users will be comforted to know theyâ(TM)ll be on 5G now.

Re:

[arglebargle_xiv]

They'll be on 5G some time next year, if Qualcomm manages to ship on time:

Devices based on the Snapdragon 6 Series 5G Mobile Platform are expected to be commercially available in the second half of 2020 proliferating 5G globally

OTOH Huawei seems to have their 5G in quantity right now:

These new chips are expected to be spread liberally across both Huawei and Honor flagships for the rest of 2019 and into 2020.

Expect a sudden surge of "Huawei is evil" news stories, accompanied by more sanctions against them and perhaps more arrests of Huawei founders if they travel to the US/Canada. Gotta show them Chinese who's boss around here, how dare they outperform US vendors!

I am still waiting for 802.11ac

[guacamole]

The 300 dollar "midrage" phone Moto G7 from Lenovo still comes only with 802.11n Wi-Fi. What year is this, 2012?

Re:

[drinkypoo]

The 300 dollar "midrage" phone Moto G7 from Lenovo still comes only with 802.11n Wi-Fi. What year is this, 2012?

What is it that you want to do with your phone, that you have enough performance for, that you can't do on 802.11n?

What's Mid Range?

[rsilvergun]

$500? My phone (and aging LG) was $250 new and that seemed like a bit much. I know the top end is pushing $1000 so when I hear "mid range" I get to wondering...

5G from Qualcomm and you'd better like it

[Guspaz]

Because you won't be getting a 5G phone from anybody else. Oh, sure, Apple will do their 5G iPhones since they bought out Intel's modem division, but Qualcomm has successfully crushed all opposition for Android. Intel pulled out and sold to Apple, Huawei got banned, Qualcomm forced Samsung not to export Exynos chips to the US market, and UniSOC only targets emerging markets. I think a handful of Mediatek phones have made it to North America, so they might offer some meagre competition.

And to low end phones 18 months later

[Snotnose]

This is how tech works. Why would anyone be surprised at this point?

Market Research

[PassiveRadar]

Slashdot is full of early adopters. This post about 5G (now) has 9 total comments as of this post. Whomever is in charge of the 5G propaganda needs to up the game. Hire some memesters from 8chan or something to teach you "gorilla smarketing" or sum ting. Otherwise, we just shove the 5G environmental impact statements in the face of everyone showing how unfertilized eggs and sperm are highly susceptible to mutation when exposed to the 5G (and etc. RF / microwave) frequencies. After an egg is fertilized

I want my modems long-range

[nospam007]

...not mid-range.