Qualcomm held an online conference on MWC 2022 at 9:30 tonight to launch a number of new products. Includes the FastConnect 7800 for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3, the new 5G modem Snapdragon X70, and a new audio platform.
These products are not only for smartphones, tablets and other products, but also include wearables, XRs, automotive digital chassis, CPEs, and industrial upgrades.
But before we dive into a separate introduction, let's talk about Snapdragon Connect.
Snapdragon Connect
Network-related technologies are packaged as Snapdragon Connect, which includes 5G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and related technical specifications.
Similar to snapdragon Sight and Snapdragon Sound before it, it represents that the product's network specifications meet Qualcomm's requirements and can provide a better network and device connection experience.
It also provides Qualcomm with a clearer roadmap, which can more systematically upgrade the network specifications of different terminals and bring more consistent upgrade plans.
Qualcomm FastConnect 7800
The first is the Qualcomm FastConnect 7800 connectivity system, which is the world's first Wi-Fi 7 solution and the fastest and most advanced mobile connectivity system officially stated by Qualcomm.
The FastConnect 7800 has Wi-Fi speeds of up to 5.8Gbps and latency of less than 2ms. With this speed, it not only improves the Wi-Fi network experience, but also empowers cloud gaming, wireless displays, XR headsets, co-working, and more.
Wi-Fi 7 supports 2.4/5/6GHz three frequency bands working together, as well as 320MHz or 240MHz (80+160) bandwidth, which can be compatible with more countries and regions. The FastConnect 7800 also extends the quad dual-band concurrency feature to the high frequency band on the basis of supporting 4K QAM, making it more suitable for simultaneous use of multiple devices.
It also has Smart Dual Bluetooth technology to support snapdragon Sound features.
Qualcomm S3/S5 audio platform
On this basis, Qualcomm launched a new audio platform that supports Snapdragon Sound - S5/S3. Officials say they can support CD-level lossless sound quality, support third-generation active noise reduction technology, support LE Audio-compliant audio sharing, and better performance in terms of latency and stability.
Among them, CD-level lossless sound quality and lower latency require end-to-end optimization, which is inseparable from the Qualcomm S3/S5 audio platform.
They support Bluetooth 5.3, which allows the headset to have the specifications required by Snapdragon Sound, for split Bluetooth headsets.
Qualcomm has also introduced AI features to better support voice assistants and improve end-to-end audio performance. For example, it can be adjusted in a timely manner according to the environment, reduce the bit rate in the environment with strong interference, emphasize stability, and vice versa, emphasize high bit rate and sound quality.
However, the official said that considering the need for stability and multi-device sharing, Snapdragon Sound will use aptX encoding by default.
Snapdragon X70 5G modem
At the same time, Qualcomm's Snapdragon X70 5G baseband also has AI support, and is the first product to introduce a 5G AI processor for modems.
It supports millimeter wave and Sub-6GHz networking methods, covering all 5G commercial frequency bands from 600MHz to 41GHz worldwide.
The Snapdragon X70 can achieve 10Gbps downlink and 3.5Gbps uplink rates, supporting downlink quad carrier aggregation and uplink carrier aggregation. With the addition of Qualcomm AI suite, the Snapdragon X70 can also achieve better millimeter wave network performance, feedback and optimization, while improving energy efficiency performance.
At present, Qualcomm has supported mobile network operators and service providers to deploy services with millimeter wave separate networking, bringing more flexibility to 5G networking.
Other content and summaries
The above is also due to the testing and other stages, basically have to wait until the second half of the year to follow the chip and other products to land. However, Qualcomm also previewed a new product: ThinkPad X13s from Lenovo.
It will debut the third-generation Snapdragon 8cx computing platform. With four X1 large cores and four A78 cores, the chip should have a significant improvement in performance at least.
As can be seen from this conference, Qualcomm hopes to take the network and connection that includes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 5G as a new point of strength. Considering that most of the high-end smartphones, tablets, and many laptops and wearables are currently using Qualcomm's network solutions, this should bring users a real experience upgrade in the next one to two years.
Qualcomm will also continue to focus on meta-universe (based on XR), automotive digital chassis, industrial and edge networks and other fields to help build modern 5G networks and industrial transformation. However, in this article, I will not go into detail about these aspects.