Snapdragon X75, Snapdragon X72 5G Advanced-Ready Modems Announced by Qualcomm Ahead of MWC 2023

Snapdragon X75 and Snapdragon X72 were announced by Qualcomm on Wednesday as the company's latest modem-to-antenna solutions. The successor to the Snapdragon X70 modem that featured on last year's flagship smartphones is claimed to be the first in the world to feature support for 5G Advanced connectivity. The new modem is equipped with a dedicated hardware tensor accelerator that offers improved AI performance over its predecessor. It also offers benefits including 10-carrier aggregation for mmWave 5G networks, reduced costs, board complexity, and power consumption, and 5G/4G dual data on two SIM cards simultaneously, according to the company.

Qualcomm says the Snapdragon X75 is the first 5G Advanced-ready next-generation modem-RF system that is 3GPP Release 17 and Release 18-ready. The product brings a new architecture as well as a new software suite from the chipmaker. The Snapdragon X75 is equipped with the Qualcomm 5G AI Processor Gen 2 with a dedicated hardware tensor accelerator, alongside the Qualcomm 5G AI Suite Gen 2 — it is claimed to offer 2.5 times improved AI performance compared to the previous generation.

The company's next-generation 5G Advanced-ready modem will be the first to offer 10-carrier aggregation for mmWave 5G, while users on sub-6Hz 5G networks can take advantage of 5x downlink carrier aggregation and frequency-division duplexing (FDD) uplink, Qualcomm says. The Snapdragon X75 also allows device makers to reduce costs, hardware size, board complexity and power consumption, thanks to a converged transceiver for mmWave and sub-6Ghz 5G networks and the QTM565 mmWave antenna.

Qualcomm is also touting the AI capacities of the new 5G modem, including location accuracy enhancements and improved connectivity in elevators, subway trains, airports, parking lots, or even during mobile gaming sessions. It will also enable support for Qualcomm DSDA Gen 2 connectivity, which means users will be able to use 5G/4G dual data simultaneously on two SIM cards. The Snapdragon X75 modem will also offer Snapdragon Satellite support, the company's next-generation technology that was unveiled at CES 2023.

The company expects the new Snapdragon X75 modem to make its way to commercial devices including smartphones, mobile broadband devices, automotive products, computers, and satellite communication services, by the second half of this year. “5G Advanced will take connectivity to a whole new level, fuelling the new reality of the Connected Intelligent Edge,” said Durga Malladi, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Cellular Modems and Infrastructure, Qualcomm, in a prepared statement.

Meanwhile, Qualcomm also unveiled its Snapdragon X72 5G modem-RF system that supports multi-Gigabit upload and download speeds. The company claims it has been optimised to increase adoption of mobile broadband applications. However, the company is yet to reveal additional information about the product, including detailed performance statistics and availability on commercial devices.

Qualcomm says the Snapdragon X75 will also power the company's new Qualcomm Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) Platform Gen 3, which it claims is the first fully integrated FWA platform with 5G Advanced-ready connectivity. This means that customers will have access to mmWave and sub-6GHz 5G, along with next-generation Wi-Fi 7 support with up to 10Gbps connectivity. While details of availability are yet to be announced, Qualcomm says the FWA platform will offer multi-gigabit speeds and “wire-like” latency to indoor devices, while allowing mobile operators to economically deliver fibre-like Internet speeds over 5G to rural, suburban, and dense urban communities.