Qualcomm’s New X65 5G Modem is Kinda, Super, Really Fast

Qualcomm announces 5G stuff all of the time, and so it becomes hard to keep track of where the advancements are or if any of it is important. Today is one of those days where they announced a 5G-related item that matters.

The Snapdragon X65 5G modem is now official as Qualcomm’s fourth-generation 5G modem. This will likely be the modem that powers devices in the 2nd half of this year and beyond. Its capabilities are quite something, assuming we ever get to the point where we can fully utilize them.

Qualcomm is calling the X65 5G their “biggest leap in 5G solutions since the commercialization of its first modem-RF,” with theoretic speeds up to 10Gbps, an upgradeable architecture that allows it to continue to improve with the 5G industry, and improved power efficiency. Yes, I said 10Gbps download speeds.

Now, I’m not sure we have networks capable of 10Gbps speeds or the “fiber-like” experience that Qualcomm claims this modem can produce, but by the time they are ready, Qualcomm will have a product to take advantage. We’ll also look forward to those sweet, sweet speed demos even if they are in controlled environments.

While this chip will be ready in “late 2021” for smartphones, you should probably expect to see it used elsewhere, like in PCs, mobile hotspots, and industrial IoT.

// Qualcomm