Qualcomm Technologies has provided the modem and processor for Samsung’s Galaxy S5 Broadband LTE-Advanced handset, the world’s first commercially available LTE-A Category 6 smartphone.
The handset, which goes on sale in South Korea this month, will use the vendor’s Gobi 9×35, the mobile industry’s first commercially available 20nm cellular modem, as well as its fourth generation 3G LTE multimode modem.
The modem can also support WCDMA /MC-HSPA, CDMA 1x/EVDO Rev. B, GSM/EDGE and TD-SCDMA technologies. It also touts QT’s WTR3925 transceiver, the first 28nm RF chip that is commercially available, which supports 3GPP-approved frequency bands, in addition to carrier aggregation.
Consumers can hit download speeds of up to 300MB per second on the device, as well as benefit from more efficient power usage.
The Snapdragon 805 processor will support features such as Ultra HD video and the ability to stream to HD television. The Qualcomm Adreno 420 GPU will provide “console quality gaming” but at lower power consumption and memory bandwidth.
The processor also supports the smartphone’s 1.2Gpixel image signal processor.
Murthy Renduchintala, Executive Vice-President at Qualcomm Technologies and Co-President, Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, said: “The Korea launch of the Samsung Galaxy S5 Broadband LTE-A, the world’s first commercial LTE Cat 6 smartphone, will usher in a new class of premium mobile computing experiences for consumers.
“With this device, consumers will now have the ability to more easily capture and share stunning 4K video while enjoying gaming that brings console-quality experiences to the smartphone.”
An increasing number of European operators are launching LTE-A networks, with Bouygues in France the latest to go live this week.
According to figures from the Global mobile Suppliers Association, a fifth of the 300 operators with an LTE network are also investing in LTE-A.