14 DAY TRIAL // Sprint, along with Qualcomm and Motorola, showed off Gigabit LTE in New Orleans recently, and the technology was featured on an unannounced Motorola smartphone. On the other hand, Motorola is expected to unveil a new flagship phone this year.
The unannounced Motorola phone was covered with tape and featured in a case, as to conceal its design or other identity elements before it is officially announced. The device ran Snapdragon 835 and used the X16 LTE Modem from Qualcomm, granting it Gigabit LTE speeds.
Sprint uses various technologies to generate impressive speeds, including the three-channel carrier aggregation, which is available in more than 100 markets.
Snapdragon 835 SoC and Gigabit LTE
Editor of Wireless Week Diana Goovaerts posted the picture of the Motorola’s phone on Twitter. The tweet also mentions that the upcoming Motorola flagship will be announced this year and feature “four antenna based on unique tech years in the making.”
The device recorded an average data transfer speed of 700 – 900Mbps. Sprint will use 2.5GHz spectrum in high-traffic locations in the US for Gigabit LTE, as part of a 5G network. Users will be able to fall back onto Gigabit LTE from 5G in case of network issues and not experience any difference in data transfers.
Qualcomm’s latest chipset, the Snapdragon 835, is said to power the device. The chip will be featured in many flagship phones this year, including the Galaxy S8, which will be announced on March 29 and go on sale on April 28. The recently announced Xperia XZ Premium also features SD835 and has the ability to reach Gigabit speeds, thanks to the incorporated X16 LTE modem, which supports 4x4 MIMO and 4x carrier aggregation even in weak signal conditions.
HTC is another smartphone maker that intends to equip its upcoming HTC 11 with the latest Snapdragon 835 chipset later this year, as will several other OEMs in the market.