From 2G to 5G in 2H 2019

Intel has announced its XMM 8160 5G modem that supports all the "Gs" from 2G to 5G NR and it plans to ship the modem in 2H 2019 so expect it in phones and PCs in early 2020.

Ahead of planned schedule

Intel has unveiled its latest XMM 8160 5G modem, which supports both the older standard but also brings 5G speeds with peak speeds of up to 6Gbps.

Industry sources

Each year Intel invests some $2 billon to please one large modem customer - Apple - and the level of investment will likely increase in the near 5G future.

L shaped battery phone starting at 1.149 € / $999+ tax / £999

iPhone XS and XS Max have started reaching their early adaptors, and at the same time iFixit managed to dismantle it and tell us which chips are inside of the precious overpriced phone.

Apple lover stuck with slower choice

Qualcomm has been signaling since the beginning of the 2018 that it might not end up in Apple's iPhone 2018 and at its last financial conference call it officially confirmed it.

Not an early adopter

Apple is known for not being an early adopter when it comes to new wireless standards. According to people close to the matter, Apple 2019 iPhone won’t have 5G capability. Intel might even be ready with its 5G PC solution.

Apple has painted itself into a corner

Apple's gamble that it could bully Qualcomm into reducing its costs for its broadband chips by using Intel's lower tech options appears to have backfired and now Jobs' Mob is forced to stick with Chipzilla.

4x4 and the power of the modem

Sony made a splashy announcement of the Xperia XZ2 phone powered by the Snapdragon 845. It decided to focus on the power of its download communication demo and showed that within two years, the maximum download speed  rose from 600 Mbps to 1.2 Gbps.

316.58 Mbps upload, double from 2017

Back in October Fudzilla asked Cristiano Amon, now President and Alex Katouzian VP and general manager of the mobile business at Qualcomm about the future of Gigabit LTE modems and we got a clear indication that things will be faster using the 1.2 GHz Snapdragon X20. The company has just announced that the Snapdragon X24 is the first 7nm chip and not only that, it supports 2Gbps speeds.

Will be capped for Intel sake

There is no big surprise that iPhone X uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X16 modem and is capable of Gigabit LTE speed, but since Intel version doesn’t support this speed, both phones will be capped at the lower speed.