Qualcomm, at the 4G/5G summit in Hong Kong, announced the new Snapdragon 636 SoC for mid-range smartphones. The company claims is that the new chipset is 40 percent faster than the Snapdragon 630 SoC that was announced earlier this year. Qualcomm also announced that it has successfully tested a 5G data connection on its Snapdragon X50 5G modem chipset.
“Achieving the world’s first announced 5G data connection with the Snapdragon X50 5G modem chipset on 28GHz mmWave spectrum is truly a testament to Qualcomm Technologies’ leadership in 5G and extensive expertise in mobile connectivity. This major milestone and our 5G smartphone reference design showcase how Qualcomm Technologies is driving 5G NR in mobile devices to enhance mobile broadband experiences for consumers around the world,” said Cristiano Amon, executive vice president, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and president, QCT. 
Qualcomm conducted the demonstration in its San Diego labs, and has also released a video. In the test, the new Snapdragon X50 5G modem chipset was able to achieve speeds of up to 1 gigabit (or 1,000 megabits) per second. This speed is many times faster compared to the current 4G LTE wireless networks on today’s smartphones. In the battle of next-gen mobile broadband, the high-speed 5G data will help Qualcomm up the ante against rivals such as Huawei and Intel. 
Now that the testing is successful, Qualcomm expects the commercial launch of 5G network and smartphones to begin starting first half of 2019. Sure, the launch timeline seems aggressive than many in the wireless industry would have envisioned. However, credit for the same goes to the changes announced by 3GPP, the body that governs cellular networks such as 5G. 
Besides announcing the successful test of 5G data connection, Qualcomm also announced its first mmWave 5G smartphone reference design, which will allow the chipmaker to test and optimize the 5G mmWave performance.
{BGR}