Qualcomm: new mobile soc with integrated 5G modem will be available in 2020

Qualcomm has announced in the context of the Mobile World Congress that the first commercial devices with a Snapdragon soc with integrated 5G modem are expected in the first half of 2020.

Qualcomm reports that copies of the new soc are scheduled to go to manufacturers in the second quarter of this year. That means that the yet to be announced new Snapdragon soc is expected in devices in the first half of next year. Presumably, that soc will appear in high-end devices, such as perhaps the successor to the Galaxy S10 from Samsung.

The manufacturer does not yet provide many details about the new product, although Qualcomm does say that the soc builds on the experiences of the existing 5G modems, the X50 and the recently presented X55. Furthermore, Qualcomm states that the new soc ‘benefits’ from the second generation of its own mmWave-5g antenna module. The first version was unveiled in the summer of last year.

Qualcomm’s current high-end Snapdragon 855 is a 7nm chip that already supports 5g, but it still requires a separate, internal X50 modem, which is not integrated as standard. By integrating a modem for 5g in what may be the successor to the Snapdragon 855, it will be easier to use 5g networks. In addition, an internal 5G solution will require less energy from the battery.