No doubt, Qualcomm has dominated the world in 4G and LTE and has invested a lot to prepare for the 5G future. As one of first and steady leaders & supporters & promoters in 5G technology, Qualcomm revealed its flagship Snapdragon 855 mobile platform on December 5, 2018 in Hawaii. [Qualcomm Snapdragon Tech Summit 2018]
With the Mobile World Congress (MWC) happening this week and many world’s leading handset brands having announced their products to be launched later this year, Snapdragon 855’s worldwide penetration map has become clear.
1. First of all, the largest handset manufacturer by shipment Samsung announced its 10th anniversary phones – Galaxy S10 series.
There are four versions:
- S10e $750
- S10 $900 with free Samsung’s wireless earbuds
- S10+ $1000 with free Samsung’s wireless earbuds
- S10 5G bigger screen and battery, an additional rear camera (4!), with Qualcomm’s X50 5G modem, pricier and available on later dates ($1,200 up, depending on sale of S10+ I think) [Read more on S10 5G]
S10 series will use Snapdragon 855 platform in regions including North America, Latin America, Hong Kong, China, and Japan, and in Europe it will be using Samsung’s own Exynos 9820.
2. Xiaomi announced its Mi 9 in China on February 20.
Mi 9 might be the cheapest handset with Snapdragon 855 available globally, starting at RMB ¥2,999 in China and €450 in Europe. Xiaomi also revealed Mi 9 SE, priced lower at RMB ¥1,999, featuring Snapdragon 710. And a global launch event is in Barcelona during MWC on 24 February.
Another version of a previous handset by Xiaomi – Mi Mix 3 5G is also announced today at MWC. Mi Mix 3, when introduced in October 2018, uses Snapdragon 845; the new 5G version will use Snapdragon 855, plus Qualcomm’s X50 5G modem. The device will be available in May for €599 (cheapest 5G with Qualcomm’s X50 modem?) in selected Europe market. [TechCrunch]
Xiaomi is one of Qualcomm’s crucial allies in Chinese market (and globally).
3. OnePlus to announce OnePlus 7 5G with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 and X50 5G modem
A Chinese company that is doing surprisingly well in its global presence I’d say. By not focusing on Chinese market, OnePlus’ majority brand/marking/community efforts are outside of China IMO.
On the Qualcomm Snapdragon Technology Summit mentioned above, OnePlus has said it will work with EE (a division of BT, the largest operator in UK) to be the first to release a commercial 5G smartphone in Europe (second half of 2019 in UK and Finland, according to the recent report by USA Today).
Although OnePlus has been very successful in US before, it will solely focus on Europe at the first launch (different operator partners with Xiaomi).
4. Lenovo Z5 Pro GT – available only in China starting at ¥2698, first Snapdragon 855 phone available
5. LG G8 ThinQ and V50 ThinQ – announced on MWC today, both with Snapdragon 855, the difference between the two is that V50 has 5G connectivity by Qualcomm partnering with Sprint
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So it becomes clear that Snapdragon 855 will be in
- US with Samsung and LG
- Europe with Xiaomi and OnePlus
- China & Asia with Samsung, Xiaomi, Lenovo, LG
5G modem is more complicated with carriers’ spectrum but Qualcomm seems to be ready for its 5G globally, with the existing X50 and newly released X55. (And Apple will need another year from Intel for 5G…)
