Qualcomm Announces Multi-Gigabit 5G Connectivity and 3D Sonic Sensor

Today at the Snapdragon Technology Summit, Qualcomm pulled the curtains off of its next Snapdragon chip: Snapdragon 855. The mobile platform is the first to support multi-gigabit 5G connectivity in mobiles.

After long anticipation and a series of experimentations and testing, 5G is finally coming to mobile devices starting next year. Accompanying Qualcomm during the event were mobile-carrier giants AT&T and Verizon who showed off 5G network in action. This technology is set to be available across North America, Europe, Australia, Japan, China, and South Korea.

The Snapdragon 855 chipset features Snapdragon X50 5G modem and Qualcomm QTM052 mmWave antenna modules that power multi-gigabit 5G connectivity.

Qualcomm’s latest chipset doesn’t just feature the latest connectivity technology but brings several additions and improvements to on-device AI. The 4^th generation Qualcomm AI Engine promises up to 3 times the AI performance over Snapdragon 845.

The new image signal processor inside the chip known as Computer Vision will bring “cutting-edge computational photography and video capture features”. For gaming enthusiasts, Snapdragon Elite Gaming will push the new hardware to power the most demanding experiences on the screen.

But the most significant addition besides the multi-gigabit 5G capable modem, is the Qualcomm 3D Sonic Sensor. That’s right – Qualcomm is bringing in-display fingerprint technology to its platform.

Although Vivo and OnePlus have introduced in-display technology commerically, Qualcomm’s implementation is set to be way better. Instead of using light to recognize fingerprints, 3D Sonic Sensor utilizes ultrasonic waves to map fingerprints and match them against stored values. While the current implementation works just fine, it presents limitations. Light cannot effectively read greasy fingerprints. But ultrasonic waves can read microscopic texture on fingerprint to generate a 3D map.

While no smartphones were announced during the event, we can expect Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S10 to be the first 5G-capable smartphone in the United States in the first half of 2019.

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Jawwad Iqbal

Having written on tech for years now, Jawwad Iqbal took his passion for sharing news and opinions with the inception of Hardware Blitz. He holds a firm view that quality content drives long-term success.

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