Globally renowned PC-maker Lenovo, which also happens to own Motorola, has announced to bring the world's first advanced 5G-enabled smartphone.
The company vice president Chang Cheng on Weibo has claimed that Lenovo will unveil Qualcomm Snapdragon 855-powered smartphone with 5G capability before any rival brands.
What's the advantage of 5G data speed over current 4G?
For those unaware, 5G network speeds can reach more than 10 Gbps, 1000 times more the current 4G standard (100 Mbps) and the latency is extremely low — aspects that are considered the two driving forces for not just smartphones with high-speed internet, but also for new-age applications and Internet-of-Things (IoT) that need massive spectrum bandwidth to work flawlessly.
For the uninitiated, latency in telecommunication is described as the time taken by a packet of data to get from one designated point to another. This is a very important aspect of autonomous cars, which need to continuously interact with the main cloud server for a real-time route map, navigation and updates like traffic and weather.
Currently, some network carriers in the US, such as T-Mobile, have set up the infrastructure for advanced Gigabit LTE with up to 611 Mbps speed and in tests, it has managed to get a top speed of more than 979 Mbps. Even rival Verizon Wireless and AT&T are fast catching up.
But, 5G offers way more speed and will certainly help consumers have high-quality internet and communication experience not just on smartphones, but also companion IoTs and smart automobiles.
Coming back to the topic at hand, Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 is expected to make official debut in late December this year and even if Lenovo brings out the 5G-enabled smartphone before anybody else, consumers will have no choice but depend on the 4G-LTE network.
Yes, Cheng's claims are laudable, but the commercial roll-out of 5G service is unlikely to happen by this year-end and at least not until late 2019 that too, it will be initially limited to developed markets. Rest of the global regions such as India and emerging markets are expected to have advanced telecommunication infrastructure only in 2020.
As of now, there is no word on whether the company intends to launch the product under Motorola or with Lenovo's Z series phones.
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