Earlier this year, Qualcomm announced its Snapdragon X65 and Snapdragon X62 5G Modem-RF solutions. Indeed, the former is set to be the world’s first 10-gigabit 5G modem. We should end up seeing it in devices next year. Now, the company is announcing Snapdragon X65 and Snapdragon X62 M.2 5G modem reference designs.
M.2 is a plug-and-play solution. These M.2 5G modems are made for OEMs that want an easy way to add 5G to a PC, so it should reduce the amount of effort that it takes to do it. Naturally, they’re not for Windows on ARM PCs, since those actually have the modem in the chipset.
The M.2 card supports 5G on both millimeter wave (like some US providers offer) and sub-6GHz frequencies. Qualcomm was quick to add that software updates are providing wider support for mmWave as well as better battery life.
The reference design is available to companies now, although it’ll take some time before this translates to finished laptops and other products you can buy. Qualcomm hopes for the first solutions to be ready by late 2021.
The bigger question, as is often the case, revolves around real-world speeds. Verizon (Engadget’s current parent company) only just managed to reach 4.3Gbps speeds in a trial reported days ago. It could take a long time before 5G is fast enough to justify a 10Gbps modem, and even longer before you can really use the added speed.
