MWC, short Mobile World Congress, is an annual event held by GSM Alliance in Barcelona, Spain. MWC is the world’s largest event to showcase mobile technology, and that is exactly what happens every year. Every year, OEMs around the world use MWC as a platform to announce their latest consumer-ready products, giving us smartphone enthusiasts plenty to drool over for the coming months. At MWC 2020, scheduled for 24-27 February, we are expecting a slew of releases, with major launch events lined up before as well as during the exhibition. Here we give you a lowdown on what to expect from MWC 2020.

HMD Global

HMD Global has used the MWC stage in the past to release Nokia-branded smartphones, and the company will be present this year too, so we can expect to see some Nokia-branded phones. Nokia will also be present at the event this year, but its talks center around 5G, so Nokia’s talks could be focused around the infrastructure more so than phones.

We don’t know much about HMD Global’s plans for its Nokia-branded smartphones at MWC 2020. HMD Global previously confirmed, during Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Tech Summit, that they will launch phones using the Snapdragon 765 and Snapdragon 865 platforms. The company could unveil these phones at the event. We could also see more budget and mid-range phones as HMD Global is known for. Unfortunately, though, we haven’t seen any reliable leaks for the devices that could be at the show, but early unverified rumors suggest a Nokia 8.2 5G, Nokia 5.2, and Nokia 1.3 for this year’s event.

One wildcard could be the Nokia 400, which could be the first feature phone with Android. This mysterious device has been rumored for a while and we’ve seen hints at Android running on a feature phone. We really don’t know much about this phone, which leads us to believe it won’t be at MWC, but it is a possibility.

Huawei

Huawei P40 leaked renders – Don’t expect to see this at MWC

Huawei will also be present at MWC 2020, with “new products and solutions.” While the wording is very wide, Huawei will take the stage to talk about 5G for sure, as they reveal on their own website. This could relate to 5G infrastructure as Huawei has a significant presence in that area, so we aren’t entirely confident about whether we will see a new phone or tablet launches at MWC 2020. The Huawei P40 series is expected at a separate event in March 2020, so it is unlikely that the phone will be unveiled at MWC 2020 as that would render the separate March launch event pointless. Plans can change, of course, so we leave the door open to surprises.

Huawei P40 — XDA Articles || Huawei P40 Pro — XDA Articles

Honor

For Honor, we have a better idea of what to expect, even if the particular details on some products are hazy. Honor sent out media invites announcing that the company will be showing off devices that will be launched in Europe, including the Honor 9X Pro and View 30 Pro. Honor says they will also have a “special edition” of the MagicWatch 2 smartwatch and wireless earbuds at MWC.

Honor 9X Pro

The Honor 9X Pro has been around for a while, but it has taken Honor some time to release it in all markets. Back in October, the company announced they would be releasing a different version of the Honor 9X Pro in Europe. It did make its way to a few European countries, but at MWC, Honor will be announcing an even wider global availability. The Honor 9X Pro is rocking a 6.59-inch display, the Kirin 810 processor, 8GB of RAM, up to 256GB of storage, and has a 4,000mAh battery. The device features three rear cameras: 48MP, 8MP wide-angle, and 2MP depth sensor. The front 16MP camera is housed in a pop-up mechanism and the device comes in purple and black colors.

Honor 9X Pro — XDA Articles

Honor View 30 Pro

The Honor View 30 Pro is expected to be the global rebranding of the Honor V30 Pro that was launched in China in November 2019. We largely expect the phone to come with the same specifications, but we cannot rule out smaller changes for the different regions. The Honor V30 Pro comes with a 6.57″ FHD+ LCD with dual-punch holes for the front camera, the HiSilicon Kirin 990, a triple camera setup consisting of a 40MP primary, 12MP wide-angle, and 8MP telephoto cameras. The front setup on the V30 Pro comprises of a 32MP primary and an 8MP telephoto shooter. The V30 Pro supports dual-mode 5G, so we expect to see that carried over to the View 30 Pro too.

Honor View 30 Pro — XDA Articles

LG

LG has been a regular at MWC for a few years now, as it takes the stage to announce its latest flagship that will compete against flagships from other top-tier OEMs. This year, we expect to see the LG V60 ThinQ with a dual-screen accessory and the LG G9 ThinQ launched at the event, at the very least.

LG V60 ThinQ

Something like this?

The LG V-series used to see a release in the second half of the year, but LG broke its tradition by launching the LG V50 alongside the LG G8 at MWC 2019, and then following up with the LG G8X in the second half. Thus, we expect to see the V60 ThinQ this year, and the device is expected to focus on the dual-screen experience through an accompanying second-screen accessory, much like the LG G8X. The folding structure is expected to see an upgrade — though the exact upgrade is still a mystery. And of course, there will be 5G.

LG V60 ThinQ — XDA Articles

LG G9 ThinQ

While the LG V60 ThinQ has not seen render leaks yet, the LG G9 ThinQ has, giving us a fair idea of what to expect from the upcoming LG flagship. The LG G9 will have a waterdrop notch for the singular front camera, indicating that there will be no hand gesture-based gimmicks this time around. The leaked renders show off a quad rear camera setup as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack at the bottom, making this phone from LG one of the very phones in 2020 to still retain the port. The phone is also expected to have minimal bezels on a flat display, as well as an in-display fingerprint scanner.

LG G9 ThinQ — XDA Articles

Motorola

At the Snapdragon Tech Summit, Motorola had announced that it would launch at least one phone with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765 and at least one phone with the Snapdragon 865. AndroidHeadlines reports that Motorola had sent out press invites for an MWC 2020 event, where the company is expected to announce this flagship phone. In addition to the flagship, three other Motorola devices have also leaked in the last few days — the Moto G8, the Moto G8 Power, and the Moto G Stylus. So it is possible that these three phones also make an appearance at MWC.

Moto G8

The Moto G8 is expected to come with a 6.39″ HD+ LCD, likely with a single hole-punch for the front camera. The fingerprint sensor will sit embedded within the Motorola batwing logo on the back of the phone, as the leaked renders corroborate. The phone is expected to be powered by the Snapdragon 665 and is likely coming with a 4,000 mAh battery with 10W charging. The phone is likely to come with a triple rear camera setup with a 16MP primary, 8MP wide-angle, and a 2MP macro camera; along with an 8MP front camera.

Motorola Moto G8 — XDA Articles

Moto G8 Power

The highlight of the Moto G8 Power is expected to be its 5,000 mAh battery and 18W fast charging support. The Moto G8 Power is also expected to come with a 6.36″ FHD+ LCD, and the batwing logo on the rear will house the fingerprint scanner. The camera setup is expected to be similar to the Moto G8 — but with an extra 8MP sensor on the rear, and the front seeing an upgrade to a 25MP shooter.

Motorola Moto G8 Power — XDA Articles

Moto G Stylus

Motorola is also expected to launch a phone in the G-lineup with an included stylus, though we do not expect the stylus to compete in functionality to Samsung’s S-Pen. We recently just learned more about this mysterious device. It has a 6.36-inch display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 processor, 4GB of RAM, 64/128GB of storage, and a 4,000mAh battery. On the back, there is a 48MP main camera, 2MP macro camera, and 16MP wide-angle camera. Motorola will include some rudimentary software features for the stylus as well.

Moto G Stylus — XDA Articles

OnePlus

OnePlus Concept One

OnePlus has not confirmed any plans for MWC 2020. OnePlus typically does not announce new products at the event, but there’s always a possibility they could still do something. For example, at CES 2020, they showed off the Concept One smartphone. It’s possible we’ll see OnePlus demo its 120Hz display tech at the event, but I doubt we’ll see a full-fledged announcement of the OnePlus 8 series. OnePlus is a company that tries to grab headlines as much as possible, so we definitely expect some news from the event.

OPPO

OPPO has confirmed that it will be present at MWC 2020 to talk about 5G technology, so we can expect the Chinese OEM to further mark its presence in some way. While no phone releases have been officially confirmed or announced by the company, it is a possibility that they lift the wraps off the OPPO Find X2 and OPPO Find X2 Pro. MWC 2020 would also be a good time to announce the global launch of the Reno3 series.

OPPO Find X2/X2 Pro

At OPPO Inno Day in December 2019, OPPO had confirmed that its next premium flagship, the Find X2, will launch in Q1 2020. The Find X2 Pro, on the other hand, received no such comments, but the device was recently spotted in NBTC certification filings. They will come with new technologies like the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, Sony’s new 2×2 On-Chip Lens solution, and a better display with an emphasis on the display resolution, refresh rate, colors, and dynamic range. OPPO also had announced that they have signed a multi-year collaboration agreement with Pixelworks, so we can expect to see the Iris 5 visual processor in these devices too.

OPPO Find X2 — XDA Articles

OPPO Reno3 Series

The OPPO Reno3 series was launched in China last month and we know it will eventually launch globally. OPPO’s press release said to “stay tuned” as the Reno3 series will “hit the other market[s] around the world,” after all. As a recap, the Reno3 has a 6.4-inch flat display, MediaTek Dimensity 100L processor, 8/12GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 4,025mAh battery. The rear cameras are 64MP, 8MP wide-angle, monochrome, and portrait. The Reno3 Pro has a 6.5-inch curved display, Snapdragon 765G SoC, 8/12GB of RAM, 128/256GB of storage, and a 4,025mAh battery. The rear cameras are 48MP, 13MP telephoto, 8MP wide-angle, and 2MP monochrome.

The Reno3 was priced around $485 for the 8GB+128GB variant and $530 for the 12GB/128GB variant. The Reno3 Pro cost $570 for the 8GB+128GB variant and $640 for the 12GB/256GB variant.

OPPO Reno3 series — XDA Articles

Qualcomm

Qualcomm will have an event at MWC, but it’s unknown if the company will unveil any new SoCs. They could announce adjacent products like improvements to their WiFi and Bluetooth tech. We don’t know much about their plans yet. Last year, the company announced the X55 5G modem just days before MWC. We’ll keep our eyes open for a similar announcement.

Realme

Realme has confirmed their presence at MWC 2020, with at least one 5G phone expected to be shown off as part of its global launch. This 5G phone could be the Realme X50 5G with the Snapdragon 765G that was announced in China recently, or a new smartphone with Snapdragon 865 (possibly called the Realme X50 Pro) as per more recent reports, or even better, both.

Realme X50 5G

The Realme X50 5G has already been launched in China, so we know what to expect unless there are any variations. One of the highlights of this device is the 120Hz refresh rate 6.57″ FHD+ LCD with an elongated camera cutout for the dual front cameras. The phone comes along with Snapdragon 765G, 4,200 mAh battery with 30W VOOC 4.0 fast charging support, a quad-rear camera setup consisting of a 64MP primary, 8MP wide-angle, 12MP telephoto, and 2MP macro camera, as well as a 16MP primary and 8MP wide-angle camera on the front. There’s a side-mounted fingerprint scanner too.

Realme X50 — XDA Articles

Samsung

Samsung already has its own Galaxy Unpacked event, where it is expected to unveil the new Galaxy S20 series and the Galaxy Z Flip. Galaxy Unpacked 2020 is not coinciding with MWC 2020 as it is held a good two weeks before MWC. As a consequence, we do not expect Samsung to show off any flagship phones at MWC 2020, but instead, use the opportunity to show off its new phones that would have already been launched by then. There is a possibility that Samsung does unveil new releases in its A-series lineup though.

Sony

Sony has confirmed that it has scheduled a press event at MWC 2020. We’re expecting to see the 21:9 aspect ratio Sony Xperia 5 Plus (or whatever its final marketing name would be) to be announced at the event.

Sony Xperia 5 Plus

The Sony Xperia 5 Plus is expected to carry forward the 21:9 trend from Sony with a tall 6.6″ OLED display with thin bezels as well as dual front-facing stereo speakers and an 8MP front camera. The phone is expected to also retain the rectangular boxy look from recent Sony flagships. This phone is also expected to come with a triple rear camera setup with an additional ToF sensor, and a 3.5mm headphone jack too. Leaked renders have suggested a side-mounted fingerprint sensor too, indicating that Sony is not yet ready to make the jump to in-display fingerprint sensors just yet.

Sony Xperia 5 Plus — XDA Articles

TCL

TCL took the stage at CES earlier this year to announce its self-branded smartphones: the TCL 10 5G, TCL 10L, and TCL 10 Pro. The CES announcement showed off the design of the device and some preliminary details, and TCL mentioned that they will announce complete details on the lineup at MWC 2020.

The TCL 10 5G offers sub-6GHz 5G connectivity thanks to a Snapdragon 7-series SoC (likely the Snapdragon 765). The official renders of the phone show off a phone with thin bezels and a quad-camera module (with a 64MP primary camera) above the physical fingerprint scanner on the rear. The highlight of the device will be its price, as the TCL 10 5G is expected to be priced under $500, which should make it one of the more affordable 5G smartphones in the US market.

Vivo

Vivo has also announced its presence for MWC 2020. But much like last year, the company is expected to use the event to show off a concept smartphone, presumably in the APEX lineup.

Vivo Apex 2019

Last year, the Vivo Apex 2019 was shown off as a 5G concept phone made out of a glass unibody, with three pressure-sensitive capacitive buttons on the side as a replacement for conventional press buttons for power and volume. This glass unibody design led the way to eliminate all ports on the device — so the Vivo Apex 2019 had no USB port, no speaker grill, no SIM tray, and of course, no headphone jack. The phone also featured a full-display fingerprint scanner, which means that the in-display fingerprint scanner works to recognize fingers placed anywhere across the display. Of course, as a concept smartphone, the phone was not meant to go under mass production, so Vivo removed the front camera too, because why not. With these risks taken already, we’re very curious where Vivo leads us this year.

Xiaomi

Xiaomi isn’t listed for a press event at MWC 2020 yet, but they do have a booth on the ground. Xiaomi has confirmed that the Chinese OEM will launch the Mi 10 with the Snapdragon 865 in Q1 2020, so that is the likeliest of possibilities of what we can see in their booth — though how they will handle an announcement remains to be seen. We might also see the Mi 10 Pro, whose existence was very recently confirmed.

Mi 10/Mi 10 Pro

At least two phones exist within the Mi 10 lineup, and conventional naming techniques suggest these would be the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro. The Mi 10 Pro will support 66W fast charging. We’re hoping to get more quality leaks for these devices as the event approaches.

Xiaomi Mi 10 — XDA Articles

ZTE

ZTE has confirmed attendance at MWC 2020 with a 5G-focused event. Of course, the conversation will revolve around 5G, but it is within the realm of possibility that we also see the company announce the ZTE Axon 10s Pro 5G with the Snapdragon 865. The phone has passed through TENAA, so we have a fair idea of what to expect out of the device if it does indeed get launched at MWC.

ZTE Axon 10s Pro 5G

The ZTE Axon 10s Pro 5G looks nearly identical to the Axon 10 Pro, but there are several key updates. First and foremost, as the name implies, this device will support 5G connectivity. This will be a major point of focus at MWC and ZTE will be onboard with it. ZTE has revealed that the device will feature WiFi 6 with support for dual-WiFi acceleration, LPDDR5 memory, and UFS 3.0 flash storage.

ZTE also let the cat out of the bag about the SoC, which will be the Snapdragon 865. Further leaks have filled-in some of the other details as well. The phone will come in 6GB, 8GB, and 12GB RAM variants, as well as storage options ranging from 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB. It has a 48MP main sensor, and what we expect to be a 20MP wide-angle and 8MP telephoto sensor. The battery should be 3,900.

ZTE Axon 10s Pro 5G — XDA Articles

MWC 2020 is set to be another huge show for the mobile industry. While we already have a decent idea of what we’ll see at the event, there will absolutely be more than what’s listed on this page. You’ll want to keep up with everything that happens in Barcelona by following our MWC 2020 tag. Who’s excited for a big show?

The post MWC 2020 Preview: Everything we expect from this jam-packed event appeared first on xda-developers.

Qualcomm is a major company in the Android smartphone market. Not only does the company design the SoCs that make their way in flagship, mid-range, and budget smartphones, but it also designs and sells modem chips, which make it possible for smartphones to connect to wireless cellular data networks. It’s been noted before that Qualcomm earns the majority of its revenue not from selling smartphone system-on-chips (SoCs), but from patent licensing. Qualcomm is heavily involved in the cellular world; to a large extent, it was responsible for developing the CDMA2000 standard (it has much lesser clout in 3G WCDMA), and it also has patents in 4G LTE. It wants to be just as heavily involved as the industry moves to 5G. The trouble here is that Qualcomm’s practices are consistently anti-competitive, which is why the company has been battling with China, Taiwan, South Korea, the European Commission, and has lost a case to the US FTC, before winning an appeal. Separately, it fought a years-long case with Apple before reaching a settlement. Now, the EU has opened another investigation into Qualcomm, this time for its front-end radio-frequency (RFFE) chips.

This news comes after Qualcomm’s Q1 2020 financial report. It reported a 13% fall in profits but still managed to exceed analysts’ expectations. It also reported in a regulatory filing, however, that it’s under investigation by the European Commission to ascertain whether it engaged in anti-competitive behavior by leveraging its market position in 5G modem chips in the radio frequency chip market. The Commission has now confirmed to TechCrunch that it is investigating Qualcomm.

Radio frequency front-end (RFFE) chips

Qualcomm has spent years battling regulators and has paid billions of dollars in fines over allegations of anti-competitive patent licensing. As noted in the first paragraph, it lost a case to the FTC over this issue, and is currently appealing. This present issue is related to RFFE (radio frequency front-end) chips. Qualcomm supplies modem chips, also known as baseband processors, to device makers. The Snapdragon X55 discrete modem is an example. It’s meant to be paired with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, which has no integrated modem.

On the other hand, the radio frequency front end chips are different. In simple terms, they are the link between the modem and the phone. Qualcomm’s website states that they consist of power amplifer modules, power trackers, diversity receive module, antenna tuning solutions, low noise amplifier, filter products, the RF switch and switch module, and more. These chips have become more complex in 5G phones as it’s more difficult to design a 5G phone, particularly if a device maker wants to incorporate millimeter wave 5G. The QTM525 and its predecessor QTM052 mmWave antenna modules are also an example of RFFE chips. These chips have been used in Snapdragon-powered mmWave 5G phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G and the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ 5G. In mmWave, Qualcomm is the dominant player so far, as vendors such as Huawei’s HiSilicon and MediaTek haven’t released modems with mmWave yet. Samsung is the only other major vendor selling modems with mmWave 5G support.

The issue is that Qualcomm has been trying to persuade phone makers to buy RFFE chips together with its own modem chips, instead of selecting parts from separate vendors and integrating them. This is an anti-competitive move, designed to increase barriers to competition and make Qualcomm’s standing dominant in the 5G market.

The other major suppliers of RF chips are Broadcom, Skyworks, and Qorvo. (It’s worth noting that the Huawei Mate 30 series uses 5G RF chips from non-US suppliers to avoid violating the trade ban.)

The implications of the investigation

Qualcomm has itself said that revenue from the radio frequency market contributed to a sales forecast that beat analyst expectations. It has won radio frequency chip contracts with Samsung, Google, and LG, among others. In the regulatory filing, it said it was in the process of responding to the European Commission’s probe. According to the company, the Commission could impose a fine of up to 10% of its annual revenue if a violation was found. In itself, that’s actually not a big deal. Qualcomm has been fined twice by the Commission in the past. In July 2019, it was fined €242 million, while in July 2018, it received a €997 million fine. Again, it’s locked in appeals over both decisions.

The big change would come if the European Commission’s actions force Qualcomm to change its behavior. Qualcomm has been promoting its modem-RF system for the Snapdragon X55, which will be used by over 30 device makers. If the Commission ruled that Qualcomm has to separate its modem and RFFE chips and not sell them bundled, for example, then the logical conclusion was that it would be device makers who would have to pay up the extra cash as the two necessary components wouldn’t be bundled together. Samsung Systems LSI’s Exynos chips aren’t a proper substitute because the latest flagship chips are only used by the company’s mobile division. HiSilicon only makes phones for Huawei phones, while MediaTek is primarily known for operating in the low-end and mid-range segments, instead of the flagship segment of the smartphone market. MediaTek wants to change this, and things can change. Up until now, though, there have been no good alternatives to Qualcomm.

It should be equally clear that device makers will quickly pass on the additional cost to the end consumers, who have been dealing with the skyrocketing increase in flagship smartphone pricing. 5G phones are already extremely expensive. The Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G, for example, is rumored to cost $1,300+ in the US. The cheapest 5G phone by a well-known device maker in China costs the equivalent of $360. Antitrust regulators have to do their job, and ultimately, if the facts are proved, Qualcomm will have to change its behavior. We will continue to keep our eyes on developments in this space.

Source: Reuters

The post The EU has opened an antitrust investigation into Qualcomm for its radio-frequency chips appeared first on xda-developers.

Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon X60 modem for flagship 5G phones. The news comes almost exactly a year after the announcement of its predecessor, the Snapdragon X55 modem. The Snapdragon X60 is the third-generation 5G modem-RF system from Qualcomm, succeeding the Snapdragon X55, which in turn succeeded the first-generation Snapdragon X50. The company has also announced the new ultraSAW RF filter technology. Let’s take a look at both of these announcements one-by-one:

Snapdragon X60 modem-RF system

The Snapdragon X60 features the world’s first 5nm baseband. (Qualcomm didn’t state who will be manufacturing the X60, but given TSMC’s leadership in the 5nm process, it’s likely to be manufactured on TSMC’s 5nm FinFET process.) The 5nm process will lead to power efficiency gains in a smaller footprint.

Update: Sources speaking to Reuters report that Samsung has won a contract to manufacture the new 5nm modem. The Reuters report states that Samsung will only be producing a portion of Snapdragon X60 modem chips and TSMC will also be involved in the manufacturing. It’s unclear which company will manufacture the first batch of chips, however.

The Snapdragon X60 is also the world’s first 5G modem-RF system to support spectrum aggregation across all key 5G bands and combinations, including millimeter wave (mmWave) and sub-6 (sub-6GHz 5G) using frequency division duplex (FDD) and time division duplex (TDD).

The system is engineered to accelerate network transition to 5G stand-alone mode through support for any key spectrum band, mode or combination. All 5G networks until now are using non-stand alone (NSA) mode, which means they require an LTE anchor for a 5G data link. 5G networks will soon transition to SA mode, however, which will allow them to be able to operate independently of LTE as the connection will be exclusively a 5G data link. The transition from NSA to SA will start in 2020 and continue in 2021.

The Snapdragon X60 features support for 5G Voice over NR (VoNR), which is the successor to VoLTE. It will allow users to make calls over 5G networks.

It also features the new Qualcomm QTM535 mmWave antenna module, which is the company’s third-generation 5G mmWave antenna module, succeeding the QTM525 and QTM052 modules. This module has support for the 26/28/39GHz bands that are being/will be used in mmWave 5G networks in North America, South Korea, Japan, and Europe. As a quick reminder, 5G smartphones incorporating mmWave need at least two of these antenna modules, in addition to the modem itself. This is because mmWave requires a line-of-sight to the node to maintain connection, and its signal is so poor that it can be blocked by buildings, trees, and even a user’s hand. It also doesn’t work indoors. Therefore, device makers place these modules in different orientations (one will be placed on the top while the second will be placed on the left/right hand sides) of the phone so that it’s not blocked by the user’s hand. The QTM535 features a more compact design than the previous generation (Qualcomm didn’t give specifics here), which will presumably lead to thinner phones.

The Snapdragon X60 allows for fiber-like Internet speeds and low latency, delivered wirelessly over 5G. Qualcomm hopes it will unlock the next generation of connected applications and experiences such as highly responsive multiplayer gaming, immersive 360-degree video and connected cloud computing. It will have “superior” power efficiency for “all-day battery life.”

The major new feature of the Snapdragon X60 is that it’s the world’s first to support mmWave-sub-6 aggregation, which should allow carriers to maximise their spectrum resources to combine capacity and coverage. With this aggregation, carriers can have their peak throughput surpass 5.5Gbps, according to Qualcomm. It’s also a way to have the best of both worlds as carriers can have both network coverage as well as capacity. Serious doubts remain on mmWave’s ability to function as an effective 5G mechanism, though, because of the aforementioned limitations of the technology. The optimal use case for mmWave will probably be for outdoor public places such as landmarks, while sub-6 5G will function as the effective successor of 4G LTE.

It also features the world’s first 5G FDD-TDD sub-6 carrier aggregation solution for double the speeds. This comes in addition to supporting 5G FDD-FDD and TDD-TDD carrier aggregation, along with dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS), which was introduced last year with the Snapdragon X55. DSS allows operators to deploy 5G services on low frequency FDD bands already in use for LTE, which is what T-Mobile is doing with its low-band “nationwide” 600MHz 5G network. The Snapdragon X60 gives carriers a wide range of deployment options such as being able to repurpose LTE spectrum for 5G to deliver higher average network speeds and accelerate 5G expansion.

Qualcomm says that with smartphones based on Snapdragon X60, operators can utilize a mix of frequency bands (mmWave, sub-6 GHz – including low bands), band types (5G FDD and TDD), and deployment modes (SA and NSA) to achieve an optimal combination of high-speed and low-latency network coverage.

The Snapdragon X60’s theoretical maximum downlink goes up to 7.5Gbps, while the maximum uplink stays at 3Gbps. In comparison, the Snapdragon X55’s theoretical maximum downlink is 7Gbps. Qualcomm says that the aggregation of sub-6GHz spectrum in SA mode allows the doubling of peak data rates in SA mode compared to solutions with no carrier aggregation support (i.e. the Snapdragon X55). Also, VoNR support will allow mobile operators to provide high-quality voice services on 5G NR.

In conclusion, Qualcomm says the Snapdragon X60 is the extension of a modem-to-antenna family that combines the baseband, transceiver, and complete RF-front-end for mmWave and sub-6GHz. The company is scheduled to ship samples of the Snapdragon X60 and QTM535 in the first quarter of 2020, with commercial premium phones using the new modem-RF system expected in early 2021. This means the modem-RF system will likely be paired with the next-generation Snapdragon flagship SoC, the Snapdragon 875. What we don’t know yet is whether the Snapdragon 875 will integrate this 5G modem on-chip like the Snapdragon 765, or whether it will remain a discrete modem like the Snapdragon 865. This piece of information will be revealed in December at the annual Tech Summit. Another piece of unknown information is whether the Snapdragon 865 supports the X60 modem.

The 5nm process also means the Snapdragon X60 is unlikely to ship on products this year. In 2019, the 7nm Snapdragon X55 did manage to ship on two Snapdragon 855-powered products: the 5G AT&T and T-Mobile variants of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ as well as the T-Mobile OnePlus 7T Pro 5G McLaren.

ultraSAW RF filter technology

Along with the Snapdragon X60, Qualcomm has also announced its ultraSAW RF filter technology. This is said to be another “groundbreaking innovation”. It’s said to significantly improve radio frequency performance in bands up to 2.7GHz, and it’s also said to outperform competing filter technologies at lower cost.

Radio frequency (RF) signals isolate radio signals from the different spectrum bands that phones use to receive and transmit information. According to Qualcomm, its ultraSAW filters achieve as much as 1 decibel (db) improvement in insertion loss, thereby offering a higher performance solution compared to competing bulk-acoustic (BAW) filters in the sub-2.7GHz frequency range.

Qualcomm’s ultraSAW technology is said to achieve superior filter characteristics to deliver high performance in frequencies from 600MHz to 2.7GHz with benefits including excellent transmit, receive and cross isolation; high frequency selectivity; a Q-factor of up to 5,000 – which Qualcomm says is significantly higher than the quality factor of competing BAW filters; very low insertion low; and excellent temperature stability with very low temperature drift in the single-digit ppm/Kelvin range. According to the company, all of this allows for more-efficient RF paths in 5G and 4G multi-mode devices at a lower cost point than competing commercial solutions with similar performance metrics for OEMs.

The ultraSAW technology serves as a key one behind the performance of Qualcomm’s radio frequency front-end (RFFE) product portfolio (which is under scrutiny by the European Commission) as well as its 5G modem-RF systems. The company is integrating this technology across its product line including PA modules, front-end modules, diversity modules, Wi-Fi extractors, GNSS extractors, and RF multipliers.

For consumers, Qualcomm says that improved RF performance will help device makers bring 5G devices with superior connectivity and battery life to consumers. A lineup of discrete and integrated Qualcomm ultraSAW products will begin production this quarter. Flagship devices from device makers are expected to be commercially available in the second half of 2020.

The post Qualcomm announces the Snapdragon X60 modem for flagship 5G smartphones appeared first on xda-developers.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 is Qualcomm’s 2020 flagship system-on-chip (SoC) for smartphones. It was announced in December 2019 as the successor to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855. This month, we are seeing the first wave of phones launching with the Snapdragon 865. Qualcomm has now made clear which announced and upcoming phones feature the Snapdragon 865. It has done so by announcing a list of 17 announced and upcoming phones that have the chip.

Use Exclusive Coupon code (S20ESR01, S20ESR02 or S20ESR03) to get 50% Off. Note: ESR had no editorial input into the creation of this article, however they did compensate XDA to include the above promotional image and mention of their coupon code.

Qualcomm says that global OEMs and brands Black Shark, Fujitsu, iQOO, Lenovo, Nubia, OPPO, Realme, Redmi, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Vivo, Xiaomi and ZTE have selected the Snapdragon 865 for their 5G phone launches this year. The company promotes the Snapdragon 865 Mobile Platform as being the “world’s most advanced,” as it’s designed to deliver the “unmatched connectivity and performance required for the next wave of flagship devices.” The Snapdragon 865 features Qualcomm’s second-generation modem-RF system in the form of Snapdragon X55. It also incorporates Wi-Fi 6 and “redefines” Bluetooth audio with Qualcomm’s FastConnect 6800 mobile connectivity system. The Snapdragon 865’s features such as gigapixel-speed photography, Snapdragon Elite Gaming with desktop-level features, and the fifth generation Qualcomm AI Engine were also promoted in the press release.

Qualcomm says that after the Snapdragon 865’s introduction in December 2019, more than 70 designs have been announced or are in development based on the platform. In addition, more than 1,750 designs have been announced or are in development based on its Snapdragon 8-series mobile platforms. Phones that have been announced or are coming soon featuring the Snapdragon 865 include:

• ASUS ROG Phone III
• ASUS ZenFone 7
• Black Shark 3
• FCNT arrows 5G
• iQOO 3
• Legion Gaming Phone
• Nubia Red Magic 5G
• OPPO Find X2
• Realme X50 Pro
• Redmi K30 Pro
• Samsung Galaxy S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra
• Sharp AQUOS 5G
• Sony Xperia 1 II
• Vivo APEX 2020 Concept Phone
• Xiaomi Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro
• ZTE Axon 10s Pro

The phones that have already been announced are the Snapdragon 865 variants of the Galaxy S20 series (which are sold in the U.S, Canada, South Korea, and China), the Xiaomi Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro, Realme X50 Pro 5G, Sony Xperia 1 II, iQOO 3, and the Sharp AQUOS 5G. The rest of the phones on the list haven’t been announced yet. The OPPO Find X2 is scheduled to launch on March 6. The ZTE Axon 10s Pro was going to internationally launch at MWC 2020, but after the cancellation of the event, ZTE hasn’t rescheduled the launch yet. The same is applicable for the Vivo APEX 2020, which was going to be showcased at the event. It’s known that the Nubia Red Magic 5G and the Redmi K30 Pro are supposed to launch soon, but we don’t have any specifics.

Lastly, the Black Shark 3, the Legion Gaming Phone (by Lenovo), and the FCNT arrows 5G are relatively unknown phones for now. The FCNT arrows 5G will likely have a Japan-only release like the Sharp AQUOS 5G. The Black Shark 3 has received certification, but Black Shark hasn’t announced a launch date yet. The same goes for the Lenovo Legion Gaming Phone, which is actually the first time I am hearing about it.

The OnePlus 8 series is surprisingly absent from Qualcomm’s list, and so are the LG V60 ThinQ and Motorola Edge+. It’s likely that OnePlus, LG, and Motorola declined to confirm the specific flagship smartphones they’re working on for the purpose of this announcement. However, we still expect to learn more about them soon.

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Back in October last year, American chipmaker Qualcomm announced support for India’s NavIC Satellite Navigation system in select chipsets. Then, earlier this year in January, the company officially announced the new Snapdragon 720G, Snapdragon 662, and Snapdragon 460 SoCs, with support for the Indian satellite navigation system. However, it’s flagship Snapdragon 865 chip still doesn’t support the Indian navigation system. Thankfully though, that’s set to change soon as per a recent announcement from Qualcomm.

Qualcomm has now revealed that the Snapdragon 865 will be NavIC capable with its final software update. The company was quoted saying, “In October 2019, Qualcomm announced support for India’s NavIC Satellite Navigation System in commercial chipset platforms and we are pleased to be working with ISRO to bring NavIV to Indian consumers and enhance their navigation experience via more accurate location performance, faster time-to-first-fix (TTFF) position acquisition, and improved robustness. Recent Snapdragon Mobile Platform launches such as Snapdragon 765, 720G, 662 and 460 support NavIC. Snapdragon 865 is NavIC capable with the final software update coming to our OEMs around April 2020.”

The aforementioned “final software update” that will be released to OEMs later this year is the Board Support Package (BSP) that Qualcomm offers to OEMs. OEMs take the BSP and build their Android releases on top of it. This means that even if Qualcomm releases the final software update in April, it will be quite a while before the NavIC support reaches consumers via an Android update from their respective OEM.

For the unaware, the NavIC or Navigation with Indian Constellation system covers India and a region extending 1,500km from its borders to provide real-time positioning and timing services on two levels. The satellite system uses the L5 signal at a frequency of 1176.45 with a bandwidth of 24MHz (1164.45-1188.45MHz) and currently consists of 7 satellites with 2 on the ground as standbys. With NavIC support on Qualcomm’s chips, users are expected to see a major improvement in location-based applications in India.

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The hardware in smartphone cameras has gotten incredibly good. We’re seeing phones launch with crazy high megapixel counts, “SuperZoom” abilities, macro lenses, wide-angle lenses, and much more. What has become even more important that hardware, however, is camera software. Qualcomm announced that they are partnering with Imint to optimize its video enhancement tech for the Snapdragon 865.

Imint is a Swedish company that produces video software used by several smartphone brands, including Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo, OnePlus, and others. We wrote about Imint and its new Vidhance Selfie Mode software last month. The Selfie Mode technology uses AI and facial recognition to continuously track the user’s face and subtly reposition it within the frame. This is similar to Google Duo’s Auto-Framing feature.

The folks at Imint worked with Qualcomm to optimize the Vidhance Selfie Mode technology for the Snapdragon 865. They’re using Qualcomm’s Spectra 480 ISP’s AI-based facial recognition for the face tracking and repositioning. This is Qualcomm’s first ISP to employ machine learning to improve facial recognition accuracy.

The Selfie Mode technology is part of Imint’s Vidhance suite of video enhancement products. The company is working with Qualcomm to upgrade some of the other products as well, such as Vidhance Super Stabilization, Vidhance Multi-Camera Transition, and Vidhance Dynamic Motion Blur Reduction. The hope is for these solutions to use less power when running on Snapdragon devices.

One thing to note about this partnership is the video technology is not part of the Snapdragon platform. This means you won’t see these features come standard on any device with the Snapdragon 865. OEMs have to license the technology to use it on their devices.

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Truly wireless earbuds have become one of the most popular electronics to buy since many OEMs have removed the headphone jacks from their flagship smartphones. Two of the biggest ongoing concerns over true wireless earbuds are audio quality and battery life. Thankfully, manufacturers are quick to improve their technologies for truly wireless earbuds, so they already offer much better audio quality and longer-lasting battery life than they did a few years ago. Samsung and Qualcomm are two of the biggest companies involved in making components for TWS earbuds, and both have just announced new chips for improving longevity and audio quality.

Samsung’s MUA01 and MUB01 PMICs

The first announcement comes from the Korean manufacturer. Samsung is detailing a new Power Management Integrated Circuit (PMIC) which is already present in the Samsung Galaxy Buds+ wireless earbuds. The MUA01 and MUB01 PMICs, which are respectively for the charging case and the earbuds itself, are intended to make True Wireless Stereo (TWS) devices last longer. The press release mentions that Samsung was able to put up to ten different components together into a single PMIC, cutting the size down to half compared to its earlier alternatives. The smaller size of the units leaves more room for the battery, which translates into better battery life. Both of the units come with a microcontroller unit and embedded flash storage, which makes updating and/or modifying their firmware easier. MUA01, the PMIC for the charging case, includes support for both wired and wireless charging (under the Wireless Power Consortium’s Qi 1.2.4 standard).

Source: Samsung

Qualcomm’s QCC514X and QCC304X Bluetooth SoCs

As for Qualcomm, they’re unveiling new Bluetooth system-on-chips for truly wireless earbuds. QCC514X and QCC304X are the newest SoCs from the company for premium and entry-level TWS devices, respectively. Both of them come with Voice Assistant support and Qualcomm’s Hybrid Active Noise Cancellation (Hybrid ANC) on the hardware level. The latter allows for low-latency leak-through, meaning that you’ll be able to take advantage of noise cancellation in airplanes as well as when you’re just walking down the street. Qualcomm also promises “premium wireless sound and voice quality.” In addition, the two SoCs support Qualcomm’s new TrueWireless Mirroring technology. According to the press release, with this technology, “one earbud is wirelessly connected to the phone via Bluetooth while the other bud mirrors the connected bud and is engineered to deliver a rapid swap under several scenarios.” The premium QCC514X supports always-on voice activation to trigger the digital assistant, while the entry-level QCC304X only supports push-to-talk.

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In a move to push wider adoption of its in-display ultrasonic fingerprint technology on premium smartphones, Qualcomm on Tuesday inked a strategic deal with the Chinese smartphone display maker BOE. Under this partnership, BOE‌ will offer its customers integrated OLED panels with Qualcomm’s 3D ultrasonic fingerprint sensors built-in. BOE‌ is the second-largest smartphone OLED panel manufacturer on the market and its customer base includes some of the biggest smartphone players such as Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and more.

Although more and more smartphones are making a switch to in-display fingerprint sensors, most of them use the optical in-display solution which works by capturing a 2D image of the fingerprint. Qualcomm’s 3D ultrasonic sensor is claimed to be faster and more secure than the optical solution but its high cost and unreliable performance has failed to impress the smartphone makers. So far Qualcomm’s 3D ultrasonic technology has only been featured on Samsung phones — notably the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S20 lineups. Qualcomm is hoping this deal will help propagate the adoption of its ultrasonic fingerprint technology and consequently win more customers.

“Through this collaboration, we expect that OEMs will have more opportunities to design cutting-edge products that feature OLED displays made with the Qualcomm 3D Sonic fingerprint sensor technology.”

As for commercial availability, Qualcomm says we can expect the smartphones with Qualcomm’s integrated ultrasonic fingerprint sensor to hit the market in the second half of 2020. Apart from phones, Qualcomm also plans to extend the collaboration with BOE in other areas such as 5G, XR and IoT‌.

Qualcomm debuted its 3D in-display ultrasonic fingerprint technology, 3D Sonic Sensor, back in 2018 with the Samsung Galaxy S10 series being the first to incorporate the tech. Late last year, Qualcomm released an upgraded version called 3D Sonic Max with a 17x larger finger recognition area than its predecessor however we have yet to see a device utilizing this new technology.

Source: Qualcomm

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Qualcomm has been the dominant player in the smartphone SoC vendor market for much of the last decade. MediaTek has long performed the role of providing cheaper SoCs in the smartphone market. Samsung and Huawei’s HiSilicon, on the other hand, make custom SoCs that are intended for use in their own smartphones. Samsung System LSI’s Exynos SoCs were used only by Samsung Mobile’s phones, for example, while HiSilicon’s Kirin chips are used in Huawei and Honor phones. In 2019, this equation changed as Samsung System LSI started selling Exynos chips to other vendors such as Motorola and Vivo. This has helped the company achieve the position of being the largest smartphone application processor (AP) vendor globally in 2019, according to a report by Counterpoint Research.

Counterpoint Research has released its latest quarterly handset report. According to the report, Samsung Electronics and HiSilicon were the only vendors among the top smartphone SoC vendors to see positive share growth in 2019, while Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Apple all saw declines.

Source: Counterpoint Research

Qualcomm remained the top vendor of application processors, despite suffering a 1.6% decline through the year. It still accounts for one-third of smartphone AP shipments in 2019. Its shares exceeded 30% in all markets except Middle East & Africa (MEA), where lower demand for high-end phones tempered demand for Qualcomm chips in comparison to other markets. This is because Qualcomm’s chips are traditionally more expensive than MediaTek’s chips, for instance.

MediaTek also saw a slight decline in its market share in 2019, while maintaining its second-place position. It had strong performance in markets like MEA, India, and Southeast Asia, with the demand being driven by low-to-mid-end phones. The company achieved one-quarter market share of global smartphone AP sales.

Huawei (HiSilicon), on the other hand, saw its market share decline in many markets outside China due to the US trade ban. Ironically, the company was able to offset these issues by “significantly expanding presence and share” in its domestic market of China.

Source: Counterpoint Research

Samsung performed particularly well in Europe, India, and Latin America, and its market share increased in other regions such as North America as well. Counterpoint Research notes that competition between these AP vendors intensified in 2019, as the focus was getting the balance right between processing speeds and price. Samsung’s share increased by 2.2% year-over-year in a declining market. However, the company outsourced some of its A-series smartphone manufacturing to Chinese ODMs since the last year, and Counterpoint says this will drive some share gains for Qualcomm and MediaTek. Also, the rising proliferation of 5G phones in the US and China will increase Samsung’s dependence on Qualcomm chips in its flagship and high-tier phones in these regions. (Currently, the company relies on Snapdragon chips for the North American/Chinese/Japanese/South Korean/Latin American variants of the Galaxy S20 series, which are sold only in a 5G configuration. The Exynos 990 global variants are further bifurcated into 5G and 4G variants.)

Counterpoint further noted that Samsung is horizontally scaling with an aim to sell its 5G SoCs to Chinese brands this year, in order to help drive Exynos chip volumes in 2020. (The Vivo X30 and X30 Pro feature the company’s upper-tier Exynos 980 SoC, for example.) Samsung is also increasingly adopting its Exynos chips across its own portfolio designed and manufactured in-house for global regions except for the US/Japan/China. Therefore, the company estimates Samsung’s overall share of the smartphone application processor market to grow further in 2020.

5G will be an important part of the story as well. 5G integrated chips with support for sub-6GHz networks will start to factor in as a competitive advantage, according to Counterpoint. Examples of such chips include the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765, MediaTek Dimensity 1000/L, and the MediaTek Dimensity 800. These chips reduce power consumption by reducing the need for an external 5G modem, and they also take up less space within the phone. Counterpoint estimates the cheapest 5G phone to be powered by an integrated 5G chip to go to sub-$300 prices in the second half of 2020, as vendors from HiSilicon, Qualcomm, MediaTek, Samsung, and even Unisoc are all pushing. In the premium segment, however, discrete 5G modem solutions will continue to be seen in the upcoming 5G iPhones as well as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 + X55 modem-powered flagship Android phones.

Source: Counterpoint Research

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Back in December of 2019 during the Snapdragon Tech Summit, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 865 and Snapdragon 765 mobile platforms. These chipsets are Qualcomm’s most powerful flagship and upper mid-range SoCs to date, and they’re already shipping on a number of premium devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S20 (865), Xiaomi Mi 10 (865), OnePlus 8 (865), and OPPO Reno3 Pro (765). Over 4 months since Qualcomm first announced these SoCs, the company has started to upload some of the sources associated with the two mobile platforms.

Code Aurora Forum, or CAF for short, hosts the source code for various Qualcomm Snapdragon SoCs. Qualcomm, as an SoC vendor, distributes a forked version of the Linux kernel to OEMs/ODMs, who then add device-specific changes on shipping devices. In addition, Qualcomm makes changes to the AOSP framework to optimize Android for each of the company’s Snapdragon mobile platforms. Qualcomm privately distributes their modified Linux kernel, AOSP framework, and other software tools to its partners as part of a Board Support Package, or BSP. On the other hand, CAF is where Qualcomm publically publishes these Linux kernel changes and AOSP framework changes. This CAF release can be useful for custom ROM developers who wish to use it as a starting point rather than pure AOSP, which is why you sometimes see “CAF-based” ROMs on our forums.

To summarize:

• Mainline Linux Kernel –> Android Common Kernel –> SoC-specific kernel (what Qualcomm publishes on CAF) –> BSP –> device-specific kernel (what OEMs are required to publish)
• AOSP –> AOSP + framework changes made by SoC vendors (not required to be published under Apache 2.0, but Qualcomm does anyway) –> BSP –> OEM Android software (OxygenOS, ZenUI, etc.)

You can browse the associated release for the Snapdragon 865 (code-named “kona”) and Snapdragon 765 (code-named “lito”) on CAF now. Qualcomm previously released some of the source code for the Snapdragon 855 back in May of 2019, meaning today’s release has come about a month earlier than we expected.

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Qualcomm Quick Charge is a proprietary fast wired charging solution found on hundreds of devices with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon SoCs. There are multiple versions of the technology that Qualcomm licenses to OEMs, with the most advanced being Quick Charge 4+. Today, Qualcomm introduced a new version of its Quick Charge technology: Quick Charge 3+.

With Quick Charge 3+, Qualcomm aims to bring its fast wired charging technology to smartphones at a lower price point. This new technology is intended to serve as an upgrade for devices using Quick Charge 2.0 or 3.0 without significantly increasing the price to implement. Qualcomm says the new technology allows for charging a device from 0-50% in 15 minutes, which is 35% faster than the previous generation (presumably Quick Charge 3.0). Qualcomm also says that their new charging technology can keep a device 9°C cooler than before when charging. These numbers are based on reference data from a single IC and an “appropriate board/battery design,” though Qualcomm did not reveal more details on the setup they used to produce this data.

Quick Charge 3+ supports standard USB Type-A to USB Type-C cables as well as accessories that support scalable voltage with 20mV steps from Quick Charge 4, a feature that Qualcomm calls Intelligent Negotiation for Optimum Voltage (INOV). Quick Charge 3+ is backward compatible with older Quick Charge versions, so new accessories based on the new standard can still fast charge older devices.

This technology is already supported by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765 and Snapdragon 765G SoCs but will also be supported on new Snapdragon mobile platforms that will be introduced later this year. The technology is supported by two new PMICs: SMB1395 and SMB1396. These PMICs allow OEMs to implement QC3+ using the same software implementation without needing to implement an external Over Voltage Protection (OVP) chip or sense resistor. The SMB1396 also supports both wireless and wired input. Xiaomi’s new Mi 10 Lite Zoom, also known as the Xiaomi Mi 10 Youth Edition in China, is the first device to support both Qualcomm Quick Charge 3+ and Quick Charge 4+ simultaneously. We can expect more devices launching later this year to feature Qualcomm’s QC 3+.

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At the Snapdragon Tech Summit in December last year, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 765 and Snapdragon 765G chipsets, alongside its flagship Snapdragon 865 SoC. The premium mid-range chips were manufactured on a 7nm EUV process from Samsung and were the first SoCs from the company to feature an integrated 5G modem (the Snapdragon X52). Much like the Snapdragon 730G from last year, the Snapdragon 765G was a gaming variant of the Snapdragon 765, featuring a slightly overclocked “prime” CPU code (@2.4GHz vs. 2.3GHz), a marginally overclocked GPU (15% speed binned Adreno 620), and support for some of the company’s Snapdragon Elite gaming features. Now, in a bid to offer even better performance in the mid-range segment, Qualcomm has announced the new Snapdragon 768G chipset.

The Snapdragon 768G is a direct successor to the Snapdragon 765G from last year and features the same architecture with some major performance improvements. Due to the fact that it’s based on the same architecture, the Snapdragon 768G is both pin and software compatible with the Snapdragon 765 and 765G, meaning that OEMs will be able to easily swap out the older chips in existing models with the new chip for a significant performance bump. Compared to the Snapdragon 765G, the new Snapdragon 768G offers the following improvements:

• The Kryo 475 CPU “Prime: core has been overclocked to 2.8GHz (up from 2.4GHz)
• The Adreno 620 GPU offers a 15% performance increase
• Support for Adreno Updateable GPU Drivers
• Support for Bluetooth version 5.2 (vs. Bluetooth 5.0 on the older chips)

We first heard about the new SoC earlier this month in a teaser for Xiaomi’s upcoming Redmi K30 5G “Speed Edition” and we can now confirm that it will be the first commercial device based on the new Snapdragon 768G mobile platform. The device is expected to feature support for dual-mode 5G (SA/NSA), a 120Hz high refresh rate display, and up to a 64MP primary camera.

In a press release regarding the Snapdragon 768G launch, Qualcomm also revealed that more than 375 5G devices have been announced or are in development with the company’s 5G mobile platforms. Out of these, more than 280 devices are based on Qualcomm’s second-generation 5G solutions, including the Snapdragon 765, Snapdragon 768G, and Snapdragon 865.

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The HEVC (High Efficiency Video Codec) has been around for quite a while and it offers reduced video file sizes and better quality than other codecs. In the world of smartphones, this becomes especially important. Qualcomm, Samsung, and Huawei are now backing MPEG-5 EVC, an alternative to HEVC.

MPEG-5 EVC will be used for 4K and 8K video as well as VR, AR, and HDR content. It’s supposedly able to offer the same quality as HEVC while having a 26% lower bitrate on average. What this means in the real world is you’ll use less bandwidth to stream something that offers MPEG-5 EVC and have smaller file sizes when recording videos.

One of the things that has held back HEVC from being more widely adopted is its licensing situation. The situation was so complex that it lead to only 12% of internet streaming services using HEVC, which ultimately blocks any of the benefits to consumers. The press release from Qualcomm, Samsung, and Huawei says they will offer “fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory terms for their respective essential patent claims covering this standard.”

A simplified licensing situation means we should see MPEG-5 EVC more widely adopted than HEVC. Google’s own royalty-free AV1 codec is another alternative out there and we’ve seen it utilized by the likes of YouTube, Netflix, Vimeo, and Facebook.

Source: Qualcomm | Via: Android Authority

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The regular boot sequence of a typical Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset-powered Android device is initiated with the Primary Bootloader (PBL), although there exists an alternative boot mode called Emergency Download Mode (EDL). The latter is strictly intended for OEM servicing and can be used to ‘unbrick’ a device with appropriate software binaries via a protocol named ‘Firehose’. Interestingly, EDL is often utilized by tinkerers to get low-level partition access, which can further be exploited to achieve bootloader unlock on some devices. Based on this principle as well as the previous research work done by the Aleph Security team, XDA Senior Member alexenferman has now discovered a generic method to unlock the bootloader of a bunch of ZTE phones without any data loss.

ZTE apparently uses the ‘devinfo’ partition to store crucial bootloader state parameters, including the lock/unlock status. As the Firehose protocol has a provision of reading the contents of individual partitions, one can dump the ‘devinfo’ partition from a bootloader-locked device, change the offset where the unlocking parameters are stored, and write the modified image back to the device to unlock the bootloader. Unlike Xiaomi and some other OEMs, ZTE doesn’t even put a safeguard before the EDL mode against such ‘attacks’, thus you can easily trigger the device to boot to emergency download mode via a simple ADB command. The only catch is that the method won’t work on ZTE phones that launched with Android 8.0 Oreo or newer, and it also won’t work on flagship devices like the Axon 9 Pro, Axon 10 Pro, Axon M, etc.

Dumping the ‘devinfo’ partition using QFIL

According to XDA Recognized Developer deadman96385, this method works with the following devices:

Additionally, the ZTE Avid 4, ZTE Tempo X, ZTE Imperial Max, and ZTE Grand X View 2 should also be compatible with this procedure. Interested users should take a look at deadman96385‘s unofficial ZTE Firehose repo and pick the right set of programmers before fiddling with their devices. The step-by-step bootloader unlocking process can be found in the thread linked below.

Bootloader Unlocking on Qualcomm ZTE Devices — XDA Discussion Thread

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By now, it’s well known how crucial connectivity is for mobile devices. Without a strong Wi-Fi connection or mobile data, even the most expensive flagship smartphone has crippled functionality. These devices are only as good as their weak link, and most of the time, wireless connectivity happens to be the weak link. The use of Wi-Fi, 4G LTE, and the nascent 5G ecosystem has only reflected the modern reality where Internet connectivity is a must, where people are working from home more than ever (admittedly, that is because of a pandemic and not because of improved connectivity), where mission-critical work is done from a smartphone. As such, it’s imperative that connectivity systems continue to improve. The advent of 5G hasn’t meant that 4G modems have stopped improving, for example. Wi-Fi is just as vital when we consider the expensive nature of mobile data. The march forward in standards has led us from Wi-Fi 4 to Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) to Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax). Few people have Wi-Fi 6 routers yet, so its speed benefits are only just starting to be realized. However, Wi-Fi 6 has already been extended by 1200MHz of spectrum in the 6GHz band, which is known as Wi-Fi 6E, which is a much more major announcement. As Wi-Fi 6E has now been formally approved, Qualcomm has announced two new mobile connectivity solutions in the form of the FastConnect 6900 and FastConnect 6700.

The background is that in February, the Wi-Fi Alliance announced the Wi-Fi 6E extension to the Wi-Fi 6 standard. In April, the U.S. FCC allocated almost 1200MHz of unlicensed spectrum in the 6GHz band for Wi-Fi 6, thus formally paving the way for Wi-Fi 6e. The key thing with Wi-Fi 6e is that it fixes Wi-Fi’s most significant issue: capacity. Previously, Wi-Fi could only operate in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz ranges, leading to congestion issues. 5GHz Wi-Fi was adopted because of severe congestion with 2.4GHz, but the proliferation of devices meant that even 5GHz started experiencing congestion, because there was a lack of spectrum. Up until now, Wi-Fi had approximately only 400MHz of spectrum. The extension of almost 1200MHz of spectrum in the 6GHz range meant that Wi-Fi’s spectrum has now been nearly tripled – no wonder, then, that tech companies are calling Wi-Fi 6E the next generation of Wi-Fi networks.

By the time of the FCC’s allocation of spectrum, Broadcom had already announced its first Wi-Fi 6E chip, the Broadcom BCM4389. Now, Qualcomm has entered the fray by announcing two next-generation FastConnect mobile connectivity systems. The FastConnect 6900 and the FastConnect 6700 succeed the FastConnect 6800 and FastConnect 6200 respectively. These mobile connectivity systems are sold alongside Qualcomm’s Snapdragon mobile SoCs. The Snapdragon 865, for example, comes with the FastConnect 6800, while the Snapdragon 765 comes with the FastConnect 6200. Therefore, it’s likely that the successors of these two SoCs will come with Qualcomm’s newly announced mobile connectivity solutions for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in 2021.

Qualcomm says the new FastConnect connectivity systems represent the most advanced Wi-Fi 6e offerings of their kind, building upon Qualcomm’s Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth audio technology features. They feature the fastest available Wi-Fi speeds in the industry (up to 3.6Gbps) on a mobile Wi-Fi offering, VR-class low latency, and Bluetooth advancements that deliver better audio experiences for classic and emerging LE Audio use cases.

The new FastConnect 6900 and FastConnect 6700 extend Wi-Fi 6 into the 6GHz band. The FastConnect 6900 offers the fastest available Wi-Fi 6 speed at up to 3.6Gbps of any mobile Wi-Fi offering in the industry, according to Qualcomm. The FastConnect 6700, on the other hand, delivers peak speeds approaching 3Gbps.

These high speeds are driven by features such as Qualcomm 4K QAM at 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz. Qualcomm claims this is an industry first implementation of this advanced modulation technique, and it can extend the maximum QAM rate (quadrature amplitude modulation) from 1K to 4K for enhanced gaming and 4K video streaming. 160MHz channels support in both 5GHz and 6GHz bands drastically expand throughput while simultaneously reducing congestion. In addition, the FastConnect 6900 delivers extra performance through a unique feature implementation of 4-stream Dual Band Simultaneous (DBS) with multi-band (including 6GHz). In English, this means the FastConnect 6900 can use 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz bands for Wi-Fi at the same time.

Qualcomm notes that 6GHz dramatically expands Wi-Fi capacity by adding up to 1200Mhz of additional spectrum, which more than doubles the number of pathways currently available for sending and receiving data. The dual band 160MHz supports up to seven additional non-overlapping channels in the 6GHz band, in addition to 160MHz channels available in the 5GHz band. The FastConnect systems deploy high-performance Uplink / Downlink MU-MIMO and OFDMA mobile technologies across all available bands. The new Wi-Fi 6 Uplink MU-MIMO capability can increase network capacity by more than 2.5x.

Qualcomm is also making proud claims about latency. The FastConnect systems’ feature implementation is said to deliver latency reduction up to 8x in congested environments for improved gaming experiences. Wireless VR-class latency (<3ms) for Head Mounted Displays (HMD) is offered, and Qualcomm hopes that it provides a strong foundation for XR applications.

Qualcomm then moves on to power efficiency. These systems provide power savings due to less channel congestion and improved scheduling. The 14nm process node, when combined with “advanced power management architecture”, provides up to 50% improvement in power efficiency when compared to previous generation solutions, Qualcomm claims.

Finally, the other part of the equation is Bluetooth. The FastConnect 6900 and the FastConnect 6700 will bring Bluetooth 5.2 to Android phones next year. They integrate Bluetooth 5.2 with the latest audio advancements. Qualcomm says that its Bluetooth 5.2 implementation includes a second Bluetooth antenna with intelligent switching capabilities that overcome common signal shadowing issues for “unparalleled” Bluetooth reliability and range. These solutions are also engineered to be ready to address emerging LE Audio experiences such as multi-point audio sharing and broadcast audio, enabling multiple audio connections simultaneously.

Qualcomm notes that its aptX Adaptive supports wire-equivalent audio up to 96kHz, while aptX Voice provides “super-wideband quality calls”. When paired with the premium features of Qualcomm QCC5141, QCC5144, QCC3046 and QCC3040 Audio SoCs, Qualcomm says users will get “robust, premium audio quality with low power consumption”. Finally, the transmit power and coexistence algorithms deliver “materially improved” range and “link robustness”.

The FastConnect 6900 and the FastConnect 6700 mobile connectivity systems are sampling now and will ship in production during the second half of 2020. Smartphones that are powered by these solutions will probably launch in early 2021.

The post Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 and 6700 will bring Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 to high-end Android devices appeared first on xda-developers.

Qualcomm is on a roll in the lower mid-range product segment for the last couple of years. The U.S.-based chipmaker has seen many significant design wins from China-based smartphone vendors such as Xiaomi and Realme. In October 2018, it launched the Snapdragon 675 mobile platform, which was followed by the launch of the the Snapdragon 730/G in April 2019. These two launches, which made their way into successful lower mid-range smartphones, were followed by the launch of the Snapdragon 720G in January 2020. One thing that all three of these SoCs had in common was that they didn’t have 5G connectivity. Qualcomm did bring integrated 5G to the Snapdragon 7-series with the launch of the Snapdragon 765/G in December, but the Snapdragon 765 (as well as its overclocked variant, the Snapdragon 768G) was intended for the upper mid-range smartphone market. This left a hole for the lower mid-range segment. Now, Qualcomm has finally plugged that gap by announcing the Snapdragon 690, the first 5G-enabled mobile platform in the Snapdragon 6-series.

The Snapdragon 690 (SM6350) is intended to be the successor of the Snapdragon 675, and it theoretically slots in below the Snapdragon 720G and the Snapdragon 730G. In practice, however, it features newer CPU and GPU designs than even the two 4G Snapdragon 7-series. This makes it Qualcomm’s most powerful SoC yet in the lower mid-range segment. This seems to be the chip that finally brings 5G to the masses of smartphone consumers.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 – Features

Let’s go in-depth with the SoC’s components:

CPU and Memory: Kryo 560 (ARM Cortex-A77)

The Snapdragon 690 is an octa-core CPU, featuring a 2+6 CPU core configuration. The two big cores are the Kryo 560 cores, clocked at up to 2.0GHz, while the remaining six little cores are ARM Cortex-A55 cores, just like previous SoCs. The Kryo 560 cores are stock ARM Cortex-A77 cores (Qualcomm is still using the “Built for Cortex” license, but unlike the Cortex-A76, it is not requesting ARM to make any changes to the Cortex-A77 cores). As the Snapdragon 675 featured A76-based Kryo 460 cores, the A77 cores in the Snapdragon 690 bring a measurable performance uplift. Qualcomm says the CPU performance is up to 20% higher, which matches ARM’s marketing regarding the Cortex-A77. With respect to comparisons against the Snapdragon 720G and the Snapdragon 730G, it’s more complicated as their A76-based Kryo 460 cores are clocked higher at 2.3GHz. The Snapdragon 690, therefore, will probably tie against the CPU performance of the Snapdragon 700 series instead of scoring higher.

Qualcomm is still using only two big cores, unlike MediaTek’s Dimensity 800 and Dimensity 820 SoCs which feature four big cores albeit of the older Cortex-A76 architecture. Qualcomm won’t have an edge in terms of single-threaded CPU performance either as the Dimensity 820’s A76 cores are clocked much higher at 2.6GHz, and the lower clock speed will negate the A77’s IPC improvements. Qualcomm is facing stronger competition from MediaTek this year.

The Snapdragon 690 is manufactured on Samsung’s 8nm LPP process. Density-wise, this means it faces a disadvantage compared to the Dimensity 800 and Dimensity 820 SoCs, which are both manufactured on TSMC’s superior 7nm FinFET process. (The Snapdragon 675, on the other hand, was manufactured on Samsung’s 11nm LPP process.)

In terms of memory, the Snapdragon 690 features 2 x 16-bit LPDDR4X memory at up to 1866MHz, with a maximum of up to 8GB RAM.

GPU: Adreno 619L

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 features the Adreno 619L GPU, which Qualcomm says makes it 60% faster than the GPU in its predecessor, the Snapdragon 675. That may seem an impressive number, but appearances are deceptive as the Snapdragon 675’s Adreno 612 GPU was relatively unchanged from the Snapdragon 660‘s Adreno 512 GPU, which was launched all the way back in May 2017. However, the Adreno numerical nomenclature does indicate that the GPU is marginally faster than the Adreno 618 GPU of the Snapdragon 720G and the Snapdragon 730G. Will it be able to beat the Dimensity 820’s Mali-G57MC6 GPU? Probably not. The Adreno 619L features support for the Vulkan 1.1 API and Physically Based Rendering (PBR).

AI: 5th Generation AI Engine with Hexagon Tensor Accelerator

The Snapdragon 690 features Qualcomm’s 5th Generation AI Engine. This consists of the CPU, the GPU, the Hexagon 692 DSP, and the Qualcomm Sensing Hub. For the first time in the Snapdragon 6-series, Qualcomm has brought its Hexagon Tensor Accelerator (HTA). This is said to power smarter on-device experiences in security, voice, and camera, including social media filters and seamless transitioning between lenses. The Hexagon Scalar Accelerator and Hexagon Vector Extensions are also present, as expected. The AI performance in the chip has been increased by more than 70% compared to its predecessor, the Snapdragon 675. The Snapdragon 720G and the 730G, on the other hand, are still expected to feature faster AI performance because of their 7-series nomenclature, but the exact differences in the AI Engine architectures between the three chips are unclear for now.

ISP: Spectra 355L

The Spectra 355L consists of dual 14-bit ISPs in the Snapdragon 690, bringing 4K HDR video capture with portrait mode (bokeh), another first for the Snapdragon 6-series. More than a billion colors (1.08 billion) can now be captured in video with this ISP. It supports up to 192MP cameras, and up to 48MP with multi-frame noise reduction (MFNR). In terms of a dual camera setup, it supports up to 32MP + 16MP at 30fps with ZSL. Slow-motion capture is supported at up to 1080p at 240fps. The video capture formats are HDR10 and HLG respectively. The ISP supports the HEIF and HEVC efficient formats to cut down on file size.

Connectivity: Snapdragon X51 5G Modem-RF system

The Snapdragon 690 features Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X51 5G modem-RF system, which is integrated with it (instead of being a discrete system such as the Snapdragon X55). This slots in below the Snapdragon 865’s Snapdragon X55 modem-RF system as well as the Snapdragon 765’s Snapdragon X52 modem-RF system. The Snapdragon X51 is a modem-to-antenna integrated system for multimode 5G. It supports both non-standalone (NSA) and standalone (SA) modes for 5G, with both FDD and TDD support, along with Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS).

As expected, the system features sub-6GHz 5G and does not support the more expensive mmWave 5G (which is of extremely limited use right now, with extremely limited market availability). The Snapdragon X51 has 100MHz of bandwidth for sub-6GHz 5G with 4×4 MIMO. It supports global 5G with multi-SIM functionality. The 5G downlink goes up to 2.5Gbps, while the LTE downlink is up to 1.2Gbps. The uplink speeds for 5G and 4G are 660Mbps and 210Mbps respectively. All of these speeds are predictably lower than the Snapdragon X52 modem-RF system found in the higher-end Snapdragon 765.

The Snapdragon X51 modem-RF system is naturally a multimode system, which means it supports legacy connectivity standards as well. Qualcomm’s proprietary technologies such as Qualcomm 5G PowerSave, Wideband Envelope Tracking, and more, are also featured in the modem-RF system.

Source: Qualcomm

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth: Qualcomm FastConnect 6200

The Qualcomm FastConnect 6200 connectivity system powers the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on the Snapdragon 690 (it also powers the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on the Snapdragon 765.) It’s a “Wi-Fi 6-ready” chip, which isn’t exactly clear on what that means. It supports Wi-Fi 5 and previous Wi-Fi standards. The MIMO configuration is 2×2 (2-stream) with MU-MIMO, another first for the Snapdragon 6-series. The channel utilization is 20/40/80 MHz.

The FastConnect 6200 features Bluetooth 5.1 with support for Qualcomm’s aptX Adaptive codec and its TrueWireless technology.

Display

The Snapdragon 690 supports Full HD+ displays with up to 120Hz refresh rates, which is yet another first for the Snapdragon 6-series. The maximum external display support is QHD+ at 60Hz. It supports 10-bit color displays (not that we will see them in the lower mid-range market for years), with support for both HDR10, HDR10+, and the futuristic Rec.2020 color gamut.

Location

The Snapdragon 690 is the first Snapdragon 6-series Soc to feature support for India’s NavIC GNSS system, coming after the Snapdragon 720G. It supports dual-frequency GNSS and all the major GNSS systems such as GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS, SBAS, and NavIC.

Audio and Charging

The Snapdragon 690 features Qualcomm’s Aqstic audio codec (up to WCD9385). It also features the Hexagon Voice Assistant Accelerator for hardware-accelerated voice signal processing as well as the Aqstic smart speaker amplifier (up to WSA8815).

In terms of charging standards, the chip supports Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 4+ specification.

Finally, the chip also supports DisplayPort output over USB Type-C, although it’s up to device makers if they want to enable or disable the feature.

Source: Qualcomm

Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 – Outlook

Right now, Qualcomm’s lower mid-range SoC portfolio is more than a bit confusing. The Snapdragon 720G and the 730G are technically higher-end SoCs than the brand new Snapdragon 690, but the Snapdragon 690 has a newer CPU architecture and a faster GPU as well. The aforementioned Snapdragon 7-series may have faster AI performance, but the Snapdragon 690 hits back with sub-6GHz 5G connectivity. So will Snapdragon 690 devices succeed Snapdragon 720G devices, or will they be in a different product tier? The answer to that is still unclear.

The first device makers to use this chip will be HMD Global, Sharp, Wingtech, Motorola, TCL, and LG. Notably, the names of Xiaomi and Realme – the two Chinese device vendors making the most value-for-money phones – are missing from the list. This doesn’t mean they won’t launch devices with the chip; it only means the aforementioned vendors will be the first to use it, but it’s still interesting enough to comment on.

In a briefing, Qualcomm told us that we should expect devices powered by the Snapdragon 690 to be available in the $300+ price bracket. However, there was some conflicting information as in response to a media query, we were then informed that in some markets like India, it’s possible that the chip could be used in $150-$200 devices. Also, the chip is slated to power phones launching in the U.S. as well.

The outlook for the Snapdragon 690 is bright because the chip brings several firsts to the Snapdragon 6-series. At the same time, however, Qualcomm would be well advised to look towards the looming shadow of MediaTek. The Helio G90T, the Dimensity 800 and now the Dimensity 820 (powering the affordable Redmi 10X) show that Qualcomm is in danger of losing (and has already lost to a certain extent) its long-dominant position in SoC performance and value. For consumers, this renewed competition is a good thing, and we anticipate some great device launches ahead in the upcoming months of 2020.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 – Full Specifications

To check out the full specifications of the Snapdragon 690, open the toggle below, or visit Qualcomm’s website.

The post Qualcomm unveils the Snapdragon 690, a mid-range chip to bring 5G to the masses appeared first on xda-developers.

Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon 4100 smartwatch platforms, consisting of the Snapdragon Wear 4100+ and the Snapdragon Wear 4100. These new smartwatch SoCs are designed for next-generation connected smartwatches and based on Qualcomm’s ultra-low-power hybrid architecture. To provide better context to this news release, let’s delve into the background of Wear OS first.

The first Android Wear smartwatches were launched in 2014. For a while, Android Wear seemed the next big thing after big-screen smartphones. There was the much-hyped first-generation Moto 360, the halo Android Wear watch. There were popular watches launched by Huawei, ASUS, and others. Android Wear even arrived at the market a few months ahead of the Apple Watch. However, all of these early efforts fizzled out. The second-generation Moto 360 never received an official successor. Other companies withdrew from releasing new Android Wear watches. The Apple Watch was released in early 2015, and the rest is history. It is now by far the most popular smartwatch in the world, and the consensus of the industry agrees that Android Wear – re-branded by Google as Wear OS in 2018 – is far behind. While Apple is now the biggest watch company in the world, Wear OS watches suffer from the catch-22 issues of poor value, lack of consumer interest, lack of vision, and so much more.

Some blame for that lies on Google for failing to make Wear OS as good as it could be after showing promise in the beginning. But many reviewers would place a larger section of the blame on Qualcomm. All Wear OS smartwatches are powered by special low-power Qualcomm SoCs. The problem is that Qualcomm had been reluctant to innovate in the smartwatch SoC front. The release of the Snapdragon 3100 in 2018 was only a mild increment over the Snapdragon 2100 in 2016. The Snapdragon 3100 still featured relatively historical ARM Cortex-A7 cores manufactured on a relatively historical 28nm process, at a time when Apple’s smartwatch SoCs and Samsung’s low-power Exynos SoCs moved to much more efficient 14nm and then 10nm processes. Apple and Samsung are the two major players in the smartwatch market, and both of them use custom operating systems in the form of watchOS and Tizen respectively. Wear OS has been a second class citizen for too many years now, and user interest in new Wear OS smartwatches is lackluster, to say the least, but it still provides one of the better options that are compatible with Android smartphones.

Qualcomm, though, hasn’t given up on the smartwatch market yet.

Nearly two years after announcing the Snapdragon Wear 3100, the company has launched its successor in the form of the Snapdragon Wear 4100+ (yes, this is the chip we first thought was to be the Snapdragon Wear 3300). It’s the first Qualcomm smartwatch SoC to be made on a modern process node: 12nm FinFET. It’s also the first Qualcomm smartwatch SoC to adopt ARM Cortex-A53 cores, finally moving on from the 32-bit Cortex-A7.

The Snapdragon Wear 4100 platforms are said to bring super-fast performance and connectivity, a smarter co-processor, and an ultra-lower power platform. The substantial improvements in platform power have been achieved by moving to a 12nm process. This isn’t cutting-edge as Samsung’s Exynos 9110 is produced on a more efficient 10nm process, but it should still provide enormous improvements over the 28nm process that powers the Snapdragon Wear 3100.

Qualcomm notes that the wearable industry has seen strong growth over the last few years (even as Wear OS loses steam). According to IDC, the industry is expected to continue to grow at an accelerated pace. The growth has given rise to segments within the industry as we can now find a range of wearables for adults, children, and seniors, along with targeted applications for sports, health, communication, and fashion. Consumers’ importance of public health and well-being will drive accelerated growth in H2 2020 and beyond, according to the company.

The wearables segment requires a flexible architecture that delivers great experiences while also having extended battery life. Qualcomm believes the hybrid architecture with an A-Class SoC and an M-Class co-processor is best suited to help meet those requirements. To that end, the Snapdragon Wear 4100+ is a high-performance CPU with improved CPU, GPU, memory, cellular modem, and camera sub-systems in the 12nm low processor process, along with dual dedicated DSPs for modem, location and sensors, as well as audio.

The Snapdragon Wear 4100+ has an AON ultra-low power co-processor that offloads a series of use cases including display, sensor, maps, and time from the main CPU. It also features a stronger AON software interface to manage the interactions between the SoC and the co-processor.

Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 4100+ makes an effort to distinguish itself from its middling predecessors. The company says the SoC’s architecture is engineered to deliver significant improvements in performance, connectivity, smartness, and power compared to its previous platforms. The smartwatch SoC is based on Qualcomm’s mobile Snapdragon 429 SoC. The key highlights of both platforms include the following:

Fast performance and connectivity. The SoC has quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU cores. The Cortex-A53 was launched as the successor of the Cortex-A7 back in October 2012 – it’s seven years old now. In the smartphone SoC space, it was succeeded by the ARM Cortex-A55 in May 2017. The Cortex-A53 is still an in-order core, but importantly, it’s a 64-bit core (AArch64). Thus, the next-generation Wear OS smartwatches will be the first to have a 64-bit CPU architecture. The Cortex-A53 also features decent IPC improvements over the Cortex-A7, so CPU performance will be faster. The cores are clocked at up to 1.7GHz. Overall, Qualcomm says the SoC delivers 85% performance improvements over its predecessor.

The Cortex-A53 cores are paired with the Adreno 504 GPU, succeeding the Adreno 304 GPU in the Snapdragon Wear 3100. Qualcomm says this brings 2.5x improvements in GPU performance, which shouldn’t be too surprising considering how old and weak the Adreno 304 was. The Snapdragon Wear 4100+ features faster LPDDR3 memory (750MHz) and dual ISPs with support for up to 16MP cameras, although the last specification is redundant.

The new IP enhances the Snapdragon Wear 4100’s overall user experience with faster app launches, concurrent use cases, smoother and more responsive UX, and richer photo and video experiences, according to Qualcomm.

Connectivity. Qualcomm says the 4G LTE mode of the SoC, based on 12nm technology, has been significantly improved compared to its predecessor, and it has a dedicated DSP, low power features such as eDRX, platform-level power management, support for Cat 4/3/1 and single/dual antennas.

Smarter Always-On (AON) Co-Processor. The enhanced AON co-processor supports better offloaded experiences. Qualcomm has partitioned memory and performance to enable up to 64K colors and has extended offload experiences to include continuous heart rate monitoring, sleep for health and fitness, faster tilt-to-wake responsiveness, step counting, alarms, timers, and haptics for a more capable traditional watch mode.

Ultra-low power platform. The low power optimizations include 12nm process technology, dual DSPs for optimal workload partitioning, support for dynamic clock and voltage scaling (DVFS), Qualcomm Sensor Assisted Positioning PDR Wearables 2.0, low power location tracking support, and an enhanced Bluetooth 5.0 architecture. Combined, these improvements are designed to deliver more than 25% power reductions across key use cases – bringing bring extended battery life to the platform compared to its predecessors.

“Richer, enhanced experiences.” The hybrid platform in the Snapdragon Wear 4100+ is said to bring rich, enhanced experiences across interactive, ambient, sports, and watch modes. Qualcomm details this by explaining that in interactive mode, the platform supports additional “immersive experiences” with camera, voice assistant, and voice/video messaging. In ambient mode, the increase in number of colors from 16 to 64K and number kerning is designed to improve readability and offer more exciting design options as well. In sports mode, offloaded maps enhance the on-the-go experience. Finally, the traditional watch mode includes features such as heart rate, steps, alarms, reminders, and battery indicator with a “minimal impact” on performance or battery life.

Qualcomm says the first Snapdragon Wear 4100 platform-based products will ship later this year. A few companies have announced smartwatches based on the Snapdragon Wear 4100 in concurrence with Qualcomm’s enhancement. This includes imoo’s next-generation Z6 Ultra smartwatch based on the Snapdragon Wear 4100. imoo is a leading brand for kid smartwatches, and the Z6 Ultra is expected to start shipping over the next month. It will be the first smartwatch to use Qualcomm’s new platform.

Mobvoi is also announcing its next-generation TicWatch Pro smartwatches based on the Snapdragon Wear 4100 platform. The company says it’s the first brand to announce its next watch based on the Snapdragon 4100 and Wear OS.

The Snapdragon 4100 platforms come in two variants. The Snapdragon Wear 4100+ includes the main SoC (SDM429w or SDA429w) and the AON Co-Processor (QCC1110), along with the companion chips including PMIC, RF for modem/GPS and Wi-Fi/BT, and RFFE (radio frequency front-end). The Snapdragon Wear 4100, on the other hand, consists of the main SoC along with the companion chips, which means it lacks the AON co-processor.

The Snapdragon Wear 4100 platforms support both AOSP and Wear OS by Google. They are available and shipping now to consumers. For more information about them, readers can head to Qualcomm’s website.

The post Qualcomm unveils the Snapdragon Wear 4100 for better performance and battery life on Wear OS smartwatches appeared first on xda-developers.

OnePlus recently confirmed that its upcoming affordable smartphone series, which was previously referred to as the OnePlus 8 Lite and later rumored to be the OnePlus Z, will be called OnePlus Nord. However, the company has still not released any official information about its specifications. While previous leaks about the device have given us a good look at its design and camera hardware, rumors about its internal specifications have been contradictory so far. At first, rumors suggested that the OnePlus Nord would be powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 1000 chipset. However, we later learned that it might feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765 SoC. But now we can finally confirm that the OnePlus Nord will be powered by a 5G-enabled Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC.

Excited to be working with @OnePlus_UK as they embark on #NewBeginnings powered by a #Snapdragon 5G chipset! #OnePlusNord https://t.co/1Eitm4GJSI

— Qualcomm EU (@Qualcomm_EU) June 30, 2020

According to a recent tweet from Qualcomm EU’s official Twitter handle, the upcoming OnePlus Nord will be powered by a “Snapdragon 5G chipset”. While the company hasn’t confirmed exactly which chipset will make an appearance on the OnePlus Nord it could be the Snapdragon 765G, if previous rumors are to be believed. We have already seen mention of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G in a survey from OnePlus which asked users whether they would be willing to purchase a smartphone from OnePlus with the processor, a 64MP triple camera setup, a 4,300mAh battery with 30W fast charging, and a 90Hz refresh rate display at ₹24,990. But we currently don’t have any confirmation if the upcoming device will offer these specifications. The OnePlus Nord is expected to launch in India and Europe on July 10th. OnePlus has confirmed that the device will be priced under $500.

Update: OnePlus Nord will come with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G SoC

In an interview with TechRadar, OnePlus co-founder Mr. Carl Pei has confirmed that the OnePlus Nord will come be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G SoC. This is in line with the previous survey from OnePlus, corroborating some of its information.

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Google’s Project Treble is undoubtedly the biggest restructuring of the Android OS since its inception. The Mountain View giant completely revamped the way the Android OS framework and vendor drivers/the Linux kernel interact with one another in order to reduce Android platform version fragmentation. On top of that, Project Treble also made it possible to boot an AOSP Generic System Image (GSI) on any supported device. XDA’s developer community has long been distributing its own custom GSIs with additional device-specific fixes, but there are some known limitations in those builds. For example, advanced cellular services like Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and Wi-Fi Calling (VoWiFi) are usually broken on GSIs.

Unlike traditional circuit-switched-style networks, VoLTE and VoWiFi are powered by the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). A typical Android device with a Qualcomm modem comes with a special privileged application that acts as a liaison between the radio interface layer (RIL) and these IMS services. In theory, one can extract the appropriate IMS APK alongside the necessary shared objects from the stock firmware and push it to their respective destinations after installing the GSIs to get VoLTE working. This is exactly where the VoLTE-Fix mod comes in.

Developed by Khushraj Rathod, this mod is quite versatile in nature. You can install it from a custom recovery like TWRP in the form of a flashable ZIP file or pick the installer shell script to do the work for you. The developer has also described a manual installation process, where you need to move the files and set the required prop values by hand after installing a GSI. Please note that the IMS APK is closed source, in case you’re wondering.

VoLTE-Fix to enable VoLTE on Qualcomm devices running GSIs: Download || Source

Keep in mind that certain OEMs (e.g. Samsung) prefer not to follow the multimedia telephony service (MMTel) standard. Their IMS implementations are completely proprietary, thus you can’t enable VoLTE on such devices using this mod.

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At the 2019 Snapdragon Tech Summit, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 865, its flagship mobile platform for 2020 flagship Android mobile devices. The system-on-chip has turned out to be the best smartphone SoC so far in 2020, beating the Exynos 990, Kirin 990, and the MediaTek Dimensity 1000L. It has been featured in acclaimed flagships such as the OnePlus 8 series, the Xiaomi Mi 10, the Snapdragon Galaxy S20 variants, and many more. Even though the Snapdragon 865 remains best-in-class in the Android smartphone market, Qualcomm has launched a mid-cycle refresh in the form of the Snapdragon 865 Plus. This follows the template of previous Snapdragon mid-cycle refreshes such as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus in 2019 and the Snapdragon 821 back in 2016.

The Snapdragon 865 Plus is a follow-up to the Snapdragon 865. The Snapdragon 865 has powered more than 140 devices (announced or in development), according to Qualcomm. The number is the highest number of individual premium-tier designs powered by a single mobile platform this year (although we haven’t seen most of these designs come to market just yet).

A reference design of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus.

The new Snapdragon 865 Plus is mostly the same as the regular Snapdragon 865 with the exception of three points. Firstly, the Kryo 585 (ARM Cortex-A77) CPU’s Prime core is now clocked at up to 3.1GHz, up from the 2.84GHz clock speed of the regular Snapdragon 865. The 3.1GHz top clock speed finally matches ARM’s ideal projections regarding the Cortex-A77. Last year’s Snapdragon 855 Plus had increased the clock speed of its Prime core (ARM Cortex-A76-based) to 2.96GHz. The 3.1GHz clock speed of the Kryo 585’s Prime Core is the highest seen in any Snapdragon SoC so far. The rest of the CPU cores’ clock speeds are unchanged.

Secondly, the Adreno 650 GPU features 10% faster graphics rendering. This makes it apparent that Qualcomm has increased the clock speed of the GPU, but the specifics on this weren’t provided in the press release. Last year’s Snapdragon 855 Plus also featured 15% graphics performance improvements over the regular Snapdragon 855, so the level of incremental improvement is similar. It should be noted the 10% increase in GPU performance won’t be enough to match the Apple A13’s GPU, for example, as the delta in peak and sustained GPU performances will still remain too big for a 10% improvement in the Adreno 650’s performance to overcome. The upcoming Apple A14 is also set to widen Apple’s lead over Qualcomm here. On the other hand, the 10% increase in GPU performance will widen Qualcomm’s lead over its SoC competition strictly in the Android market, as none of the other SoC vendors have even matched the regular Adreno 650’s GPU performance so far. The Mali-G77MP11, the Mali-G76MP16, and the Mali-G77MC9 featured in the Exynos 990, Kirin 990, and the Dimensity 1000L respectively have all fared worse than Qualcomm in GPU performance benchmarks, showcasing inferior performance-per-watt as well.

Finally, and most importantly, the Snapdragon 865 Plus features Qualcomm’s new FastConnect 6900 mobile connectivity system for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. This was announced in May 2020, and the headline features it brings are support for Wi-Fi 6E (Wi-Fi 6 extended to 6GHz) and Bluetooth 5.2. The FastConnect 6900’s top Wi-Fi speeds reach up to 3.6Gbps—the fastest in the industry, according to Qualcomm. The speed improvements have been achieved thanks to the U.S. FCC freeing up 1200MHz of 6GHz spectrum for Wi-Fi. For more information, check out our launch article on the FastConnect 6900.

The Snapdragon 865 Plus also carries over the regular Snapdragon 865’s features, such as the full arsenal of Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite Gaming features, global 5G, and “ultra-intuitive” AI. It’s said to deliver desktop-quality gaming with first-to-mobile features such as updateable GPU drivers and desktop forward rendering, 5G gameplay at up to 144fps, and true 10-bit HDR gaming. Like the regular Snapdragon 865, the Snapdragon 865 Plus features Qualcomm’s Hexagon 698 with Hexagon Vector Extensions and Hexagon Tensor Accelerator, 5th-generation AI Engine, Dual 14-bit Spectra 480 ISP, Snapdragon X55 5G modem-RF system, Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ charging technology, and more. It’s produced on TSMC’s second-generation 7nm DUV (N7P) process.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus will be featured in the next wave of flagship phones, including the ASUS ROG Phone 3 and the Lenovo Legion. Qualcomm says commercial devices based on the Snapdragon 865 Plus are expected to be announced in the third quarter of 2020, and we know that the first announcements will happen this month.

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