The company has also launched three new processors

Oct 18, 2016 12:20 GMT  ·  By

Qualcomm has announced at the 2016 4G/5G Summit in Hong Kong that its next flagship Snapdragon processor will offer download speed of up to 1 Gbps if the carrier network supports it, thus making mobile devices almost as fast as a regular PC with a wired Internet connection.

Specifically, the next top Snapdragon SoC, which is believed to be called Snapdragon 830, will use the X16 LTE modem that’s manufactured on a 14nm FinFET architecture and can reach a download speed of 1 Gbps and upload speed of 150 Mbps.

Qualcomm says that its new chip can hit this speed using the same amount of spectrum as Category 9 LTE devices, but it will only work if the network supports it. The bad news is that only some 64 percent of carriers in the world can implement it and it’s not yet known how many of them would actually do that.

But if such technology is adopted and no data cap is applied, you could browse the web with a phone almost as fast as with a wired connection on a PC.

The chip is projected to be installed on the next flagship phones launching in 2017, and manufacturers such as Samsung are expected to be among the first to adopt it. The Samsung Galaxy S8 due in the first months of 2017 could launch in a version with the new Snapdragon chip, but there are sources telling us that it might take longer before the new processor reaches the market.

Qualcomm, however, praised the X16 LTE modem during the press event and said that it expects the number of carriers offering gigabit speed to increase following the debut of the chip.

“By using carrier aggregation and 4x4 MIMO, the Snapdragon X16 LTE modem can receive 10 unique streams of data using only three 20 MHz carriers. Its support for 256-QAM boosts the peak throughput of each stream from ~75 Mbps to ~100 Mbps, with additional gains possible with modem data compression,” it said.

Three new chips

Additionally, Qualcomm has also introduced three new chips, namely the Snapdragon 653, Snapdragon 626 and Snapdragon 427, all of which come with support for Quick Charge 3.0. Furthermore, the Snapdragon 600 and 400 series support dual-camera configurations, as Qualcomm expects this feature to become more mainstream in the coming years.

According to the company, the chipsets come with the X9 LTE modem, which provides a download speed of 300 Mbps and upload speed of 150 Mbps.

The Snapdragon 653 processor is particularly interesting because it ships with substantial improvements over the 652 and doubles the supported amount of RAM from 4GB to 8 GB. The 626, on the other hand, features the new Qualcomm TruSignal antenna boost technology, which improves signal in congested areas, while the 427 becomes the first chip to bring the same option in the 400 series.

Qualcomm says that both the Snapdragon 653 and 626 are projected to reach the market by the end of 2016, while the 427 is due to see daylight in early 2017.