MWC 2018: Real-world 5G, Samsung Galaxy S9 with Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, new VR tech, and more

With decades of collaboration with all major mobile ecosystem players, Qualcomm is in a unique position to pave the way for the next wave of breakthrough technologies. That collaboration is on full display this week at Mobile World Congress 2018, from our work on Gigabit LTE to 5G to the next generation of premium-tier devices powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform, such as the Samsung Galaxy S9 (don’t miss @SuperSaf’s video detailing its features), and much more.

Take a look at what people are saying about Qualcomm at #MWC18:

Flagship phones

Several devices powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform were announced, including the Galaxy S9 and S9+, ushering in a new wave of Gigabit LTE connectivity for commercial phones. With Snapdragon 845, devices support download speeds of up to 1.2 Gbps — designed to deliver the best mobile experiences and a major step forward on the road to commercially available 5G devices in 2019. The mobile platform also enables advanced features such as on-device AI processing, immersive XR experiences, and increased battery life.

• Samsung Galaxy S9 vs S9 Plus (@SuperSaf)
• Samsung’s Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus boasts dual aperture camera, slow motion capture (ZDNet)
• An hour with the Galaxy S9 Plus reveals what the camera is all about (Digital Trends)
• Samsung’s Galaxy S9 Packs and Upgraded Camera in a Familiar Body (The Verge)
• The Xperia XZ2 is Sony’s fastest, strangest flagship phone yet (Engadget)
• ASUS ZenFone 5 series revealed (SlashGear)

ICYMI, we announced a new Qualcomm Snapdragon 700 Mobile Platform Series, intended to bring premium-tier technologies and features, such as on-device AI, to more affordable devices, especially in China.

• Qualcomm Reveals Snapdragon 700 Series, Bringing flagship features to semi-premium phones (Hot Hardware)
• Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 700 series processors offer a compromise between price and power (The Verge)
• Qualcomm Teases ‘Affordable, Premium’ Snapdragon 700 Phones (PCMag)
• Qualcomm Intros Snapdragon 700 Mobile Platform Series (Android Headlines)

Real-world 5G

It will come as no surprise that much of the buzz at MWC is, once again, about 5G. At the Qualcomm booth, we demonstrated our inventions that are making 5G a commercial reality (yes, there were oohs and aahs). We used real-world conditions, modeling two metropolitan cities: Frankfurt, Germany and San Francisco, California. Factoring in the cities’ individual geographies, user demands on the network, and cell site locations, we put 5G NR to work, testing on real-world areas of the spectrum representative of the user experience in these two major cities. The first simulation revealed almost a 900 percent increase in download speeds, from 56Mbps to 490Mbps. The second simulation showed an impressive 2,000 percent increase in download speeds, from 71Mbps to 1.4Gbps.

• Qualcomm’s simulated 5G tests shows how fast real-world speeds could actually be (The Verge)
• Qualcomm simulates real world use of 5G to come up with some insights (Phone Arena)

XR / AR / VR

We’re continuing to push the boundaries in XR or “Xtended Reality,” which encompasses both AR and VR, with the introduction of our Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Mobile VR Platform. The reference design for the next wave of VR headsets incorporates foveated rendering in its four cameras to track the user’s gaze and adjust the resolution on focused areas, all designed to deliver the high-end experience users are seeking while saving power without sacrificing performance.

• Qualcomm announces new Snapdragon 845 VR reference headset (The Verge)
• Qualcomm shares details on its vision for the near-future of mobile VR (TechCrunch)
• Qualcomm Shows Off Reference Design for Snapdragon 845 Standalone VR Headsets (International Business Times)
• Qualcomm’s sample headset teases what’s next for mobile VR (Engadget)

Other announcements

In addition to our mobile device and 5G announcements, we demonstrated several other technologies at MWC, including always-connected PCs, the Qualcomm 9150 C-V2X chipset, and advancements in RFFE.

• Qualcomm, Microsoft 'Always Connected' PCs to hit store shelves (ZDNet)

• Qualcomm’s C-V2X chips rev up at MWC (Fierce Wireless)
• Qualcomm Showcasing ‘5G Car’ and Cellular-V2X at MWC 2018 (Android Headlines)
• Qualcomm Raises Wireless Stakes With Full 5G Modules and More RF Offerings (Forbes)
• Qualcomm looks to make it easier to make 5G radar (TechRadar)

Want to know more? Visit us @ MWC 2018 in Hall 3 Stand 3E10.

No need for FOMO, though. You can catch up on everything we’re doing at Qualcomm at MWC.

Qualcomm Snapdragon and the Qualcomm 9150 C-V2X chipset are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.