Qualcomm on Tuesday finally launched its second-generation 5G modem, the Snapdragon X55. The new X55 modem is the successor to the Qualcomm’s X50 modem which was launched back in October 2016 and comes with even more Gbps download speed. The Snapdragon X50 supports 5Gbps download speed, while the new X55 modem will support download speed of up to 7Gbps. It is worth mentioning here that, even after two years of its launch, the X50 modem hasn’t made its way to the real world.
However, the X50 modem is now said to be coming with the upcoming smartphones that come with Snapdragon 855 SoC. Samsung is also expected to launch one of its Galaxy S10 device equipped with the X50 modem to support the 5G network.
It is worth mentioning here that, not every smartphone that comes with Snapdragon 855 SoC will support the 5G network. Every smartphone that comes with Snapdragon 855 SoC will have to have this extra X50 modem to get the 5G network support.
Since we haven’t yet seen the X50 modem in the real world, it seems like the newly announced X55 modem won’t be coming anytime soon as well. Notably, Qualcomm’s X50 and the X55 chip is based on 7nm process technology that supports 4G LTE speeds of up to 2.5Gbps.
A report from Neowin suggests that Snapdragon X55 could arrive by the end of this year. It is also expected that the X55 chip will be integrated into all premium devices by 2020.
To recall, last month Huawei also announced its first commercial 5G Modem Balong 5000. The Balong 5000 is also the world’s first 5G modem that supports both TDD/FDD Bands Support, while Qualcomm’s X50 5G modem only supports TDD bands.
