Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. News

MediaTek and Huawei’s partnership may mean cheap 5G phones in early 2020

Andy Boxall
By

Buying a 5G phone at the moment is expensive, but that will change over the coming year as new, low-cost 5G phones arrive. Huawei may have struck a deal to help it launch a competitively priced 5G phone in 2020. A report from MyDrivers quoting Chinese media sources says Huawei will buy MediaTek’s recently announced 5G SoC chip, which will apparently power a low-cost Huawei 5G smartphone potentially out in early 2020.

Why is this important? There are several reasons. First, while Huawei makes its own 5G modem already — the Balong 5000, which is inside the Mate 20 X 5G — it’s not an integrated solution, and is so far announced only for high-end phones. MediaTek’s 5G SoC combines ARM’s Cortex A77 CPU with MediaTek’s A70 modem, and is designed to bring 5G to phones that cost less than flagship 5G devices.

Recommended Videos

If the story is accurate, and Huawei has placed orders with MediaTek for the 5G SoC, then it’s also significant as doing so clearly avoids the current Entity List ban in force by the U.S. government, stopping U.S. businesses from selling to Huawei. MediaTek, a Taiwanese company, works with TSMC in Taiwan to build the chips. According to the report, MediaTek’s CEO has met with TSMC to confirm it can meet the number of 5G SoC chip orders required.

Related

Finally, this may give us a further, and even more concrete, indication that affordable 5G phones will arrive in early 2020. When MediaTek announced the 5G SoC, it said samples would be sent to manufacturers during the final months of 2019, and the first phones with the chip inside would launch in early 2020. It’s worth pointing out that MediaTek’s 5G SoC works with Sub-6 5G bands, rather than the mmWave system. This means it will be compatible with only some networks. In China and Europe, Sub-6 is the primary 5G system at the moment, and it is also supported by T-Mobile and Sprint in the U.S.

No announcements have been made by either company yet, and probably won’t be until next year. Digital Trends has contacted MediaTek for comment and will update when we hear back.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Andy Boxall
Andy Boxall
Senior Mobile Writer
Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…
What is 5G UC? Here’s what that icon on your phone really means
5G logo on the Motorola Edge (2022).

If you own a 5G-capable smartphone — which are all of the best phones today — there’s a good chance you’ve seen different 5G network icons showing up in your status bar. It’s a stark contrast to the pre-5G days when your phone showed “4G” or “LTE” no matter where you went.

It can get a bit confusing to see a 5G indicator one moment and then “5G UC” or “5G UW” the next. It’s not something you need to worry too much about, as you don’t usually have much control over it, but it’s still helpful to understand what these different symbols mean — and why they matter.
The humble beginnings of 5G

Read more
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X75 ushers in the next era of 5G connectivity
Qualcomm Snapdragon X75.

Qualcomm has just announced the Snapdragon X75, the company's sixth-generation 5G modem that promises to push smartphones and other connected devices into the next phase of 5G technology.

The Snapdragon X75 is the successor to last year's X70, which is the modem found in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 that powers this year's most powerful 5G smartphones — including Samsung's recently unveiled Galaxy S23 Ultra and the OnePlus 11. However, it's more than just an evolution of that earlier modem system, as Qualcomm has packed in support for next-generation 5G Advanced technology along with an entirely new architecture and powerful AI features that will allow mobile devices to access better coverage and achieve even faster speeds.
5G grows up big-time

Read more
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X35 will bring 5G to your next smartwatch
Qualcomm Snapdragon X35.

Qualcomm is poised to deliver 5G capabilities to a whole new class of mobile devices with a new modem chip that bridges the gap between today's best smartphones and much lower-bandwidth devices like payment terminals and home accessories.

Announced today, Qualcomm's Snapdragon X35 5G Modem-RF system is the world's first to adopt NR-Light, a new 5G standard for midtier devices that don't require the power and performance of a 5G-capable smartphone or tablet — but can still take advantage of the lower latency and power consumption offered by 5G technology.
Filling the 5G void

Read more