Today is the first day of Qualcomm's Snapdragon Technology Summit, and it's all about 5G. The keynote was pretty dull, not saying anything that hadn't been announced before aside from a teaser of the Snapdragon 855. The real fun for the media came after the keynote when we actually got to see this stuff in action.
Motorola's 5G Moto Mod was announced alongside the Moto Z3, promising to be the first smartphone that can be upgraded to 5G. It includes a Snapdragon X50 modem for 5G, and since it will need to be able to fall back to 4G LTE at times, it includes a Snapdragon X24 modem as well, which supports speeds of up to 2Gbps.
What we weren't told back in July when this thing was announced is that it actually included Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 chipset. Presumably, that's why the Moto Z3 includes a Snapdragon 835 instead of the newer 845; it needed to hit a lower price point so it can be packaged with the 5G Moto Mod. This is also interesting because it means that Qualcomm's earlier chipsets cannot be upgraded to 5G.
Here's Motorola's demo:
Samsung was also at the event, showing off a concept device that it announced with AT&T and Verizon. The firm's demo included streaming a 4K 60fps video in full quality and tethering it to a TV.
As you can see, the device has a corner notch. Part of the reason for these designs, including the nub that sticks out of the top of the Moto Mod, is that millimeter waves can be easily obstructed. They need a line of sight, so the device needs to have antennas on all sides. That way, you can't accidentally block the antenna if you hold it wrong.
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