A report from earlier this month revealed that Apple might miss their rumored 2020 deadline to launch a 5G iPhone. The report claimed that Apple was having issues sourcing their 5G modems due to their ongoing litigation with Qualcomm, in which the latter company supplies the majority of the chipsets in upcoming 5G smartphones.
One of the features of the Samsung Galaxy S10 is the use of an in-display fingerprint sensor. What makes this different from other in-display sensors is that Samsung is said to have used Qualcomm’s fingerprint sensor which relies on ultrasonic technology. This is said to be more secure compared to regular fingerprint scanning, but maybe it isn’t quite foolproof yet.
With 5G and foldable phones entering the market in 2019, this year’s Mobile World Congress was full of excitement, but not all products are created equal, and some are more eye-catchy than others. Here’s what we think is worthy of your attention, in no particular order.
The first 5G mmWave connectivity included in most 2019 5G handsets (in the US) will use Qualcomm’s X50 5G modem, introduced in 2016. However, the San Diego based telecom company launched the new X55 5G modem at MWC 2019, a version that should power a majority of high-end Android smartphones in 2020.
As many probably know by now, Samsung’s flagships typically launch with two different chipsets depending on the market. Some markets will receive the Qualcomm chipset, while others will use Samsung’s own Exynos chipset. While presumably Samsung has done all they can to ensure a consistent user experience, recent benchmarks don’t seem too good.
5G is largely expected to become the next standard in mobile connectivity for our mobile devices, but Qualcomm believes that due to the changes and improvements, it could be used outside of mobile devices. At MWC 2019, the company has announced new 5G networking chips designed for use outside of smartphones.
One of the ways that Android Go devices have managed to keep its costs down is by using lower-end hardware which is generally cheaper compared to more powerful hardware. It seems that Qualcomm could be trying to capitalize on that particular market because according to a report from WinFuture, the company might be testing out low-cost SoCs designed specifically for android Go devices.
During CES 2019, we had the opportunity to spend a couple of hours with some Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 reference handsets (often called MDP) to run benchmarks. The MDPs are built for development purposes but are quite representative of what a complete smartphone experience and environment would be, including thermals/cooling.
Goodbye CES 2019, this was Ubergizmo’s 14th CES! It was difficult to navigate the avalanche of new products and technologies announced there. Including the pre-show work, it took out a huge chunk of December and all of the Holidays, but the chips have fallen, and here are the best products and technologies we’ve seen at CES 2019, in no particular order!