We don’t have 5G networks yet, but Huawei has already confirmed that it’s working on a 5G phone and that it plans to launch the handset next year.
Specifically, it’s set to launch the phone in quarter three of 2019 according to Anshel Sag (an analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy), who learned the timing at Huawei’s global analyst summit.
In other words then it should land between July and September 2019, which roughly lines up with the likely launch timing of the Huawei Mate 30, or whatever it ends up being called.
That doesn’t mean the Mate 30 will be the phone to get Huawei’s first 5G modem, for one thing the company might put the modem in a handset that’s not getting a wide launch, since 5G is unlikely to be available globally in 2019. But the company is sure to use a high-end handset, so in that sense the Huawei Mate 30 would be an obvious candidate.
Faster than fast
According to Neil Shah, an analyst at Counterpoint, Huawei will use its own 5G modem in the phone and while we don’t know what the capabilities of the modem will be yet, the company has already unveiled the Balong 5G01 modem, which – while likely too large for smartphones – is capable of download speeds of up to 2.3Gbps.
As a comparison, the top-end Snapdragon 845 chipset found inside the likes of the Sony Xperia XZ2 and the US version of the Samsung Galaxy S9 tops out at 1.2Gbps.
So if the modem in Huawei’s phone is even close to the capabilities of the Balong 5G01 then you should be able to enjoy download speeds that are far, far higher than any current handset. That is, if you have access to a 5G network, which initially will be the big stumbling block.
- Huawei's remaining big phone this year is the Huawei Mate 11 Pro
Via Android Central
