Vivo has taken the wraps off of its plans for 2019 and beyond and, fittingly for the “Intelligent Connectivity” theme of this year’s MWC Shanghai 2019 event, those all seem to center around bringing new innovations to the tech market via 5G. Not only did the company reveal that work is nearly completed on its first 5G-enabled smartphone. It also unveiled a new 5G product for the consumer AR industry and those are just the beginning of its ambitions.
The biggest Vivo announcement at this year’s event may be that, following the initial showing of 5G-enabled Vivo NEX models last year, the company is finally ready to launch its first commercially available smartphone. Details surrounding the device itself are still slim but that will be ready to go by the third quarter of this year.
Vivo’s 5G-enhanced AR Glass, conversely, is a 6DoF-compatible AR wearable that connects to a 5G smartphone. Vivo plans for the dual camera-equipped device to be usable across a variety of scenarios for use in the office and for entertainment — encompassing mobile gaming, ‘5G theatre’, facial recognition, and object recognition.
Following on other advancements it has planned for 5G edge computing, the company says its glasses effectively serves as an interface for streamed gaming and media consumption alongside the AI-vision tools. For office use, the smartphone can be used as a remote control for the AR experiences functioning as a keyboard or other input device.
Bringing it all together with 5G
Vivo plans to take on the industry using a multi-device, multi-application strategy that will focus on bringing those respective solution categories together. Solutions will range across a plethora of use case scenarios whether that’s for entertainment, to conduct business or work, or just to connect a diverse array of gadgets more effectively.
Each of the solutions pulls in the underlying benefits of 5G networking in terms of both its massive speed increases and its extremely low latency.
Vivo specifically outlined three prospective applications where it is presently driving most of its efforts, including ‘5G Cloud Game’, ‘Screen Mirroring’, and ‘EasyShare’. The latter two of those are self-explanatory, hinting at new services and frameworks for sharing content more quickly and efficiently across devices. But 5G Cloud Game sheds a brighter light on exactly what Vivo’s goals are.
The Chinese tech giant hopes to utilize the advantages of 5G to essentially rid users of the hassle involved in having to download applications and games. The concept is not dissimilar to the approach taken for progressive web apps and the demonstration of 5G Cloud Game shown at MWC Shanghai is intended to prove that apps don’t need to run on smartphones themselves.
Those technologies are intended to bring together AR glasses, smart watches, smart headphones, and other products not yet specified by Vivo. Through those, the company hopes to prove that 5G can accommodate high-quality experiences and content without the need for super powerful on-device processors to handle audio and video rendering.
High-speed charging to suit 5G needs
Another technology shown by Vivo at this year’s annual mobile event in Shanghai is the 120W Super FlashCharge that was first reported earlier this month but which hadn’t yet been made 100-percent official. While it isn’t likely that 120W charging will appear in any flagship or budget-minded devices in the immediate future, that’s going to represent a momentous shift in battery technology to match 5G’s networking advances if and when it does launch.
For example, the company claims the tech is capable of charging up a larger-than-average 4,000mAh battery in just minutes. Up to 50-percent charge, in fact, takes just 5-minutes.