Qualcomm Technologies is upgrading the capabilities of its Snapdragon™ X65 5G modem-RF system, supporting standalone (SA) networks and 200 MHz carriers in the 5G mmWave bands and improving the power efficiency of the mobile phone.

The new mmWave features meet the requirements of the 5G mmWave rollout in China, as well as the global move to SA networks. The X65 handles spectrum aggregation of 1 GHz of mmWave spectrum and 300 MHz of sub-6 GHz spectrum and supports both FDD and TDD networks.

The modem-RF system update also improves power efficiency to support all-day battery life, incorporating UE-Assisted Information (UAI) within Qualcomm’s 5G PowerSave 2.0. Defined in release 16, UAI is a power efficiency enhancing technique where the device and base station coordinate to manage connection parameters such as the number of carriers, allocated bandwidth, layers and thermal performance.

The fourth-generation Snapdragon X65 5G modem-to-antenna solution, announced in February, is sampling to customers, with commercial mobile devices expected to launch by late 2021.

According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon X65 is the first 10 Gbps 5G and first 3GPP release 16 modem-RF system. Designed with a software upgradeable architecture, devices using the X65 can incorporate enhancements that enable new features and capabilities.

More technical details are available at Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X65 webpage.