The reality towards using 5G on your mobile device just got a step closer to becoming a reality. Qualcomm today announced that it has completed its first test on 5G connection on mobile device. The company used the X50 5G modem that was announced a year ago, and was performed on the 28GHz millimeter waves frequency band.
Speaking in terms of the modem, Qualcomm says that it achieved gigabit speeds in the test, but is also fully capable of 5Gbps speeds when full 5G deployments are completed. The company also release its first 5G smartphone reference design. It will use this design to test 5G modems, radios, and networks with smartphone makers over the next few years to test speeds, and possibly release 5G-compatible smartphones in the first half of 2019.
The reference design you can see above is 9mm thick and feature a edge-to-edge display. This is like many of the smartphones on the market.
To make the X50 modem work in the smartphone device, Qualcomm developed a millimeter wave antenna at about the size of a dime. Even though the company plans to fit two of these antennas in a smartphone, it does plan to shrink the size by another 50 percent in the next 12 months.
