Qualcomm announces lte modem with 1.2Gbit/s download speed
Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon X20 LTE. The lte modem performs better than the X16 variant that is in the upcoming Snapdragon 835-soc in a number of ways, including peak download speeds. The first products with the modem will arrive next year.
The Snapdragon X20 LTE is Qualcomm’s second modem to achieve gigabit speeds. The modem supports the LTE Category 18 standard, which allows peak speeds of 1.2Gbit/s. This is achieved by supporting up to twelve streams with 100Mbit/s each. The modem can handle 5x20MHz carrier aggregation for the downlink and has 4×4 mimo at three LTE carriers simultaneously.
The modem therefore offers higher peak speeds than the Snapdragon X16 of the Snapdragon 835-soc. Functionality that the X20 also has and the X16 does not, is dual sim dual volte or dsdv. As the name implies, smartphones can have two SIM cards that both support voice-over-LTE. Qualcomm has not yet announced which soc the modem will end up in. The company has only just started sending samples of its 10nm product and expects the first products with the X20 to hit the market in the first half of 2018.
| Qualcomm Snapdragon 4G lte modems | |||
| Modem | Snapdragon X20 LTE | Snapdragon X16 LTE | Snapdragon X12 LTE |
| social
Standalone |
Unknown
Yes |
Snapdragon 835
Yes |
Snapdragon 820/821
Yes |
| UE Category | Cat 18 dl Cat 13 ul |
Cat 16 dl Cat 13 ul |
Cat 12 dl Cat 13 ul |
| Peak bandwidth | 1.2 Gbit/s dl 150 Mbit/s ul |
1.0 Gbit/s dl 150 Mbit/s ul |
600 Mbit/s dl 150 Mbit/s ul |
| CA configuration | 5 x 20MHz DL 2 x 20MHz UL |
4 x 20MHz DL 2 x 20MHz UL |
3 x 20MHz DL 2 x 20MHz UL |
| mimo | 4×4 (3 approx) | 4×4 (2 approx) + 2×2 (1 approx) | 4×4 (1 approx) |
| Max. spatial streams | 12 | 10 | 6 |
| Modulation | 256-qam dl 64-qam ul |
||
| Mobile technology | lte fdd/lte tdd/ lte-u/wcdma/td-scdma/cdma/gsm | ||
| Other | LAA, CBRS, VoLTE, EVS, Wi-Fi calling, Dual SIM Dual Standby, Dual SIM Dual Active, Dual SIM Dual VoLTE | LAA, CBRS, VoLTE, EVS, Wi-Fi calling, Dual SIM Dual Standby, Dual SIM Dual Active | VoLTE, EVS, Wi-Fi calling, Dual SIM Dual Standby |
| Process | 10nm LPE | 10nm LPE / 14nm LPP | 14nm LPP |
Table: AnandTech