Teardown shows that the Huawei 5G modem is less efficient than Qualcomm's version

A new IHS Markit teardown pitted early 5G smartphones against each other. And one of the revelations of the report is the weaknesses of Huawei's 5G chip. It's been found to be larger, less efficient, and more expensive than its counterpart from Qualcomm and even Samsung. The Kirin 980 chip already has a 4G/3G/2G modem, but the addition of the Balong 5000 5G modem renders the former redundant. Huawei says the Balong 5000 5G is the first commercial multimode 5G/4G/3G/2G chip. This additional chip takes up more space, which made the Mate 20X larger than it should be. Aside from being less efficient, having two modem chips in one phone is also more expensive. And at this moment, it still doesn't support millimeter 5G. It seems Huawei still has a lot of work to do to make a better 5G modem for its smartphones.

Source: GSMArena

Samsung Galaxy Note 10 5G is tipped to get three storage configurations

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Aside from supposedly launching the regular Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10+ (a first for this series), Samsung will reportedly introduce a 5G version of the phone. Unlike previous rumours that both models will get a 5G version, it’s being reported that this model will be based on the Galaxy Note 10+. And SamMobile reports that there will be three storage configurations: 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB. The latter will get 12GB memory. And this phone will supposedly be a Verizon-exclusive in the US.

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Rumours claim Apple is developing a foldable iPad with 5G

The foldable device market has been off to a shaky start. But that doesn’t mean companies aren’t developing products for this segment. Or at least being rumoured to be working on things. Apple is the latest one, it seems. According to IHS Markit analyst Jeff Lin, Apple is working on its own foldable device. But instead of a foldable iPhone, the focus is on a foldable iPad. And that this model will support 5G, similar to the other devices from Samsung and Huawei. It’ll also reportedly have the latest A series processor and a display that’s nearly as large as the current MacBook line. However, he didn’t elaborate on the design of the device, so we can’t say how the screen will fold. Lin does say it’ll be highly portable and have “business-friendly” features, which could finally turn the tablet into a real laptop replacement.

Lin’s timeline is that it could come out as soon as next year. But it must be noted that we haven’t seen a 5G version of the iPhone yet. However, rumours have been going around that the iPad line will get 5G connectivity ahead of the iPhone. For now, we have to wait and see which rumour holds up.

Source: BGR

Apple poached Intel’s head for 5G ahead of its truce with Qualcomm

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We speculate that a part of why Intel gave up on 5G was because Apple and Qualcomm’s truce. But it seems there might be one more thing to add to that. Weeks before the said settlement, Apple poached Intel’s 5G modem head Umashankar Thyagarajan. His departure wasn’t exactly a secret. But he was, according to the Telegraph, the project engineer for the XMM 8160 chipset, which was at the heart of Intel’s 5G plans. And he “played a key role” in the creation of the Intel modems in the iPhone XS and XR.

Intel and Apple are not commenting on the report. And it isn’t clear what his role in Apple is, apart from it being described as “Architecture” on his LinkedIn page. But we expect he is working on wireless chipset design for Apple. Apple has in the past said it wanted to make its own cellular chipsets, so we aren’t as surprised about the hire as we should be.