Lenovo, Oppo, Xiaomi and ZTE aim to release 5G smartphones from next year

The Chinese manufacturers Lenovo, Oppo, Xiaomi and ZTE want to release smartphones with support for 5G from next year. For the time being, it seems to be high-end models from the smartphone makers.

The announcement makes it likely that smartphones from brands affiliated with these manufacturers, such as Lenovo’s Moto and Oppo’s OnePlus, may also receive 5G support from 2019. The manufacturers announced 5g support at a Qualcomm event in China.

The support is possible because the umbrella organization 3GPP established the first standard for 5G at the end of last year. It had been clear for some time with which techniques and on which frequencies 5g will work, so that makers of modems in smartphones could prepare themselves. Qualcomm announced its first 5G modem in October 2016 with the X50, Intel followed a year ago.

Huawei and Samsung are also working on it. Samsung would like to put its first 5G modem in a smartphone next year. As a result, a possible ‘Galaxy S10’ could receive 5g support, it appeared earlier. It is unknown exactly which frequency bands the 5g modems will support.

In the Benelux, providers have not yet announced much about 5g plans. The situation is different in the United States: all providers there will start offering 5g this year or next year.