Rumored Snapdragon 845 SoC to include X20 modem chip capable of 1.2Gbps downlink speed

Last month, we passed along a report stating that the Snapdragon 845 chipset will be Qualcomm's next high-end SoC, and will power the next-generation of high-end handsets. While the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Samsung Galaxy S8+ got first crack this year at selling handsets powered by the top-shelf Snapdragon 835 chipset (leaving the LG G6 to rely on the Snapdragon 821 SoC), the early reports suggest that LG and Qualcomm have already engaged in talks that would guarantee the presence of the Snapdragon 845 chipset on the LG G7.

According to a profile of a Qualcomm Senior Staff Engineer that was discovered yesterday on LinkedIn, the chip maker is working on including the zippy X20 modem with the Snapdragon 845 chipset. The modem supports LTE Cat. 18, which means that it can run at download speeds as fast as 1.2 Gbps. It is built on the 10nm FinFET process, and thanks to the use of 2x20MHz carrier aggregation (which widens the network pipeline allowing more traffic to flow freely), upload speeds will be as high as 150Mbps.

Qualcomm says that the X20 has been designed with 5G in mind and hopes that the modem will help move forward the use of 5G technology. Several manufacturers received samples of the X20 modem earlier this year, which means that the chip will be commercialized in 2018 when the new range of Snapdragon 845 powered handsets is released.


source: @rquandt via AndroidHeadlines