Huawei has just announced that its first 5G-enabled handset will launch in the second half of next year, to be more specific, it is expected to arrive in the third quarter of 2019. This piece of info was shared by the company during the 2018 global analyst summit in Shenzhen, China. Now, based on the projected release date for this smartphone, it is actually possible that the Mate 30 will be the company’s first 5G-ready handset, even though the Mate flagship(s) usually arrives in early Q4 every year (usually October). We are only guessing here, anything is possible at this point, and it remains to be seen if the company will opt to release a well-known series with 5G first, or will it go the other way.
Now, in order to make such a phone a reality, Huawei will use its own 5G modem. Huawei’s first 5G modem, called the Balong 5G01, was announced back at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in February, and it will be able to deliver a bandwidth of 2.3Gbps, though it will not be included in the company’s first 5G smartphone, nor any other smartphone for that matter. The Balong 5G01 chip was made for mobile hotspots and self-driving cars, not smartphones, as it is not exactly that small. Huawei is, however, working on releasing a 5G chip for smartphones, and judging by the company’s official announcement, it will be more than ready to go in the second half of next year. Huawei’s 5G modem(s) will probably be included in a number of other smartphones in the future, not only the company’s own products, as this China-based company is amongst the leaders when it comes to networking equipment, 5G included.
Now, Huawei projects that at least 1.1 billion 5G connections will be established by 2025, including 200 million 5G-connected cars. Those are just projections at this point, and it remains to be seen how accurate will they be, but along with Nokia and some other companies, Huawei is the leader when it comes to the development of 5G at the moment, and the company is in a good place to guess what’s about to happen.