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2025 iPhones could be the first to ship with Apple's in-house 5G modem
Apple is believed to be developing its own modem and wireless chips to reduce dependence on third-party chipmakers and increase profit margins.
Apple has long been rumored to ditch Qualcomm in favor of its own in-house 5G modems in iPhones, and a reputable analyst has now claimed that the change could happen in 2025. The company was earlier rumored to make the switch in 2024, but multiple delays due to unspecified reasons mean that next year's iPhones are still likely to ship with Qualcomm-made modems.
Qualcomm modems aren't in the cards for the iPhone 16
It looks like Qualcomm won't be providing modems for Apple's iPhones in 2024.
We've been hearing about Apple's in-house cellular modem chip for quite some time now. Although reports last year stated that the firm abandoned the idea with the cancellation of the iPhone SE 4, we most recently got a report that the handset, along with the in-house 5G model was back in the cards for a future release. While this was pretty much all rumor at this point, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon set the record straight during an interview at Mobile World Congress, letting the world know that Qualcomm currently has "no plans" to provide Apple with modem chips in 2024.
Samsung is bringing two-way satellite connectivity to smartphones, but there's a catch
Strong communication to get the whole message out.
Samsung has announced how it will move forward with its plans for introducing 5G satellite communications for smartphones.
Qualcomm's Snapdragon X70 5G Modem-RF gets new features
Ahead of its commercial availability, Qualcomm has announced some new features and milestones for the Snapdragon X70 5G modem.
In February, Qualcomm announced its fifth-generation 5G modem design: the Snapdragon X70. The latest modem RF system doesn’t bring substantial improvements to raw download and upload speeds, but it does offer several new features, namely, the new AI processor for enhanced performance, improved power efficiency, and more. Qualcomm has announced new features and milestones for the Snapdragon X70 5G modem ahead of its commercial availability.
Qualcomm announces AI-powered Snapdragon X70 Modem
The Qualcomm Snapdragon X70 modem is the next generation of 5G modems from Qualcomm, and it's going to power the next flagship SoC.
Qualcomm unveils a range of new 5G products aimed at future smartphones
Qualcomm today annouced a range of 5G products including the new Snapdragon X65 and X62 5G modems, new RF front-end solution, and more.
Qualcomm today announced a wide range of 5G products to help OEMs deliver significantly faster data speeds and enable new use cases on their next-generation devices. The list of products includes the world’s first 10 Gigabit Snapdragon X65 5G modem, the Snapdragon X62 5G modem, a new mmWave module, a suite of new RF front-end solutions, and more.
MediaTek unveils its first 5G modem with mmWave support
The M80 is MediaTek's first 5G modem to support mmWave networks. It offers maximum download speeds of 7.67Gbps and 3.67Gbps upload speeds.
MediaTek on Monday unveiled the M80, the company’s first modem with 5G mmWave support. The M80 is the direct successor to last year’s Helio M70 modem and will go head-to-head against Qualcomm’s X60 modem. The Helio M70 was the company’s first 5G modem, but it lacked support for mmWave bands. The M80 addresses this as it combines both mmWave and sub-6GHz on a single chip.
Apple is reportedly developing its own cellular modem chip
Apple has reportedly started developing its own 5G modem chipset in a move to be less dependant on its current supplier, Qualcomm. Read on!
Apple will soon start offering its own in-house 5G modems for future devices including iPhones and iPads. The company is said to be working on its own cellular chip design, which seems like a move to be less reliant on its current modem supplier, Qualcomm. The information was reportedly disclosed by Apple Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies, Mr. Johny Srouji, in a town hall meeting with Apple employees. “This year, we kicked off the development of our first internal cellular modem which will enable another key strategic transition. Long-term strategic investments like these are a critical part of enabling our products and making sure we have a rich pipeline of innovative technologies for our future,” said Srouji.
Samsung announces Galaxy Z Flip 5G with Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus and a familiar design
Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy Z Flip 5G with a Snapdragon 865 Plus SoC, without any changes to the external design of the foldable phone.
In 2019, Samsung, Huawei, and Motorola set out to create and conquer the segment of foldable smartphones with their respective contenders. Out of these, Samsung undeniably received most of the spotlight for the Galaxy Fold, primarily owing to its worldwide popularity. The Galaxy Fold was followed by Samsung's vertically folding and relatively much more compact Galaxy Flip Z that was unveiled alongside the Galaxy S20 series. Although the Galaxy Z Flip is projected as futuristic, it has one major hurdle that deters it from being future-ready i.e. the lack of 5G connectivity. That changes today as Samsung is launching an overhauled Galaxy Z Flip with 5G. Even though the Galaxy Z Flip 5G was expected to launch alongside the Galaxy Note 20 series at the live Samsung Unpacked event next month, the Korean giant has officially announced the new device, presumably to avoid chaos at the already packed (pun unintended) launch event.
The Samsung Galaxy A71s 5G UW may launch on Verizon with support for the carrier's Ultrawide Band network
The upcoming Samsung Galaxy A71s 5G UW may be the first mid-range Android smartphone to support Verizon's growing mmWave Ultrawide Band network.
Flagship smartphones have become really expensive this year, with many at or beyond the $1,000 mark. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 is apparently a really expensive chip because it doesn't come with a modem and also 5G is just really complex. Fortunately, there's the cheaper (but less powerful) Qualcomm Snapdragon 765 which includes an integrated 5G modem. We earlier found evidence that the U.S.-bound Galaxy A71 5G will feature this chipset when it lands on Verizon. There was some doubt about whether the Verizon model will support the carrier's Ultrawide Band network when it launches, but now, we've spotted evidence that the device will indeed support Verizon's mmWave network.
Qualcomm announces the Snapdragon X60 modem for flagship 5G smartphones
Qualcomm has announced its third-generation modem-RF system with the Snapdragon X60. This modem-RF system will appear on future flagship 5G smartphones.
Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon X60 modem for flagship 5G phones. The news comes almost exactly a year after the announcement of its predecessor, the Snapdragon X55 modem. The Snapdragon X60 is the third-generation 5G modem-RF system from Qualcomm, succeeding the Snapdragon X55, which in turn succeeded the first-generation Snapdragon X50. The company has also announced the new ultraSAW RF filter technology. Let's take a look at both of these announcements one-by-one:
MediaTek announces the Dimensity 1000, a 7nm high-end SoC with integrated 5G
MediaTek has revealed further details about its first 5G SoC, which is named the Dimensity 1000. It's a high-end SoC with ARM's latest CPU and GPU tech.
In May, ARM announced the next-generation ARM Cortex-A77 CPU architecture and the ARM Mali-G77 GPU with the Valhall architecture. Only a few days later, MediaTek surprised the chip industry by announcing its first 5G SoC. The SoC incorporated both the Cortex-A77 CPU and the Mali-G77 GPU. MediaTek disclosed that the chip would be manufactured on a 7nm process, but further details about the SoC remained unknown. Now, nearly six months after its early announcement, MediaTek is ready to fill in the blanks, including the name of the SoC. The MediaTek Dimensity 1000 is the first SoC in the 5G Dimensity series, and it aims to bring MediaTek back to the flagship SoC market.
MediaTek is making 5G modems for PCs in partnership with Intel
MediaTek has announced a partnership with Intel to develop 5G modems for PCs based on its Helio M70 platform that was released earlier this year.
Earlier this year in May, Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek announced a new 7nm 5G SoC with a Helio M70 modem, ARM Cortex-A77 CPU, and Mali-G77 GPU. The new 5G SoC from the company is the first chipset to feature a 5G modem on-die, rather than having a discreet modem like the Snapdragon 855 or the Exynos 9820. While the chipset is yet to make an appearance on a production smartphone, it may soon land in the next generation of Intel-powered PCs.
Samsung announces the 7nm Exynos 990 SoC and the 5G Exynos Modem 5123
Samsung has announced the flagship Exynos 990 SoC, which is manufactured on a 7nm EUV process, along with the 5G Exynos Modem 5123 with cutting-edge speeds.
At Samsung Tech Day 2019, Samsung has announced the system-on-chip that will almost certainly power next year's international variants of the Galaxy S11 phones: the Exynos 990. The company has also announced a new cutting-edge discrete 5G Exynos Modem 5123 that is meant to be paired with the Exynos 990.
The 7nm Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 5G modem has been announced ahead of MWC
The Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 5G modem is coming in late 2019, and it boasts a huge number of improvements over its predecessor.
MWC 2019 is set to be chock full of surprises, and Qualcomm is here to kick-off the party with the announcement of the 7-nanometer Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 5G modem. It's the world's first 7 gigabits per second (Gbps) 5G modem and is a successor to the world's first 5G modem in the Qualcomm Snapdragon X50, which was announced way back in 2016. It not only supports from 5G to 2G connections, but it also supports 5G New Radio (NR) mmWave and sub-6GHz spectrum bands. The 7Gbps rated bandwidth is in relation to download speeds, while it's rated for 3Gbps upload.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 "Fusion Platform" will include the SDX50 5G Modem
A Softbank Japan earnings presentation has confirmed that the official name of the Snapdragon 845's successor will be the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, with the SDM855 codename. It will be branded as the "Snapdragon 855 Fusion Platform" along with the SDX50 5G modem.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 was officially announced in December. We're starting to see more smartphones launch with Qualcomm's newest flagship system-on-chip. The US/China variant of the Samsung Galaxy S9, the Asus ZenFone 5Z, the Sony Xperia XZ2, and XZ2 Compact all feature the chip. This list will only continue to grow over the remainder of this year. Even though the Snapdragon 845 is yet to actually reach the hands of consumers, we're already hearing about its successor, the Snapdragon 855.