Qualcomm has made it official that its next-gen Snapdragon 800 Series of SoC (probably the Snapdragon 830) would integrate the Qualcomm X16 LTE Modem which is capable of reaching theoretical speeds close to 1 Gbps.
Obviously, these numbers would be reached under the best possible conditions, and it would take time before most carriers in the world could even deploy it. However, networks have been evolved much more quickly in the LTE era than they did during the 3G one.
The more important point of this isn’t so much the “top speed” that could be achieved, but rather the predicted increase of the average speed that is representative of consumers’ experience in the real world. Additionally, being able to burst, transmit quickly and shut down the radio is also something that typically pushes down the amount energy required to transmit a given quantity of data.
The good news is that more than half of the carriers in the world have the necessary infrastructure to deploy this solution in some ways. Most of the developed world carriers can, but globally, about 64% are at that stage.
Qualcomm has not made further comments on “which” 800-Series chip it will be, but looking back at historical patterns, Snapdragon 830 is probably sampling now and being used for development by partners. The first batch of phones could be announced as early as CES 2017, and certainly at MWC 2017 – two major shows that Ubergizmo covers in depth.
Filed in . Read more about Carriers, Processors, Qualcomm, Snapdragon and SoC.