Qualcomm Snapdragon 4-Series Phone Chips To Bring High-Speed 5G To The Masses In 2021
Qualcomm has taken a top-down approach with 5G, first supporting the next-generation cellular standard last year with the Snapdragon 855/855+ used in conjunction with the discrete Snapdragon X50 5G modem. This year, the company has further expanded 5G availability, with the complete lineup listed below:
Flagship
- Snapdragon 855/Snapdragon 855+ — Snapdragon X50 (Discrete)
- Snapdragon 865/Snapdragon 865+ — Snapdragon X55 (Discrete)
Mid-Range
- Snapdragon 765/Snapdragon 765G/Snapdragon 768G — Snapdragon X52 (Integrated)
- Snapdragon 690 — Snapdragon X51 (Integrated)
The new Snapdragon 4-Series SoC will finally deliver 5G support to budget handsets typically pried $300 and below. Although Qualcomm doesn’t come right out and say it, we’d expect that these chips will be use the Snapdragon X51 5G modem (or something very similar), which lacks support for mmWave as used by Verizon for 5G service.
“Qualcomm continues to pave the way for 5G commercialization at scale, and the expansion of 5G into our Snapdragon 4-series is expected to address regions that currently have approximately 3.5 billion smartphone users combined,” said Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon. “The Snapdragon 4-series 5G Mobile Platform is designed to exceed expectations for the mass-market segment by bringing an assortment of predominately high- and mid-tier features to a broader audience. It will deliver on the promise of making 5G accessible to all smartphone users.”
At this time, Qualcomm isn’t ready to announce specifications for its upcoming 5G-enabled Snapdragon 4-Series SoCs, but we’ll likely hear more at the Snapdragon Summit coming up later this year. In the meantime, Motorola, OPPO and Xiaomi have all announced that they will support these new SoCs in smartphones starting early next year.
