If 2019 is the first year of 5g smart phones, 2020 will be the year when the 5g smart phone market really erupts.

According to the forecast of IDC, the market research organization, 5g smart phone shipments will account for 8.9% of the total smart phone shipments in 2020, reaching 123.5 million units, which will increase to 28.1% by 2023. According to the 2020 terminal product planning and 5g product white paper released by China Mobile, it is estimated that in 2020, 5g mobile phones will exceed 100 models and the market size will exceed 150 million. It is expected that by the end of next year, the price of mobile phones will reach 1000-1500 yuan, and 5g mobile phones are expected to be popularized rapidly. Industry insiders also say that the cost of 5g mobile phones will fall much faster than that of 4G mobile phones.

Behind the rapid outbreak of the 5G smartphone market and the accelerated decline in costs, it is between 5G mobile phone chip manufacturers.

Because of the design of 5G chip, the process level is more complex, more difficult and more expensive than any generation in the past. After Intel announced its withdrawal from 5G phone baseband chip research and development in the first half of this year and sold the mobile phone baseband chip business to Apple, the only global 5G baseband chip suppliers are Huawei, Qualcomm, Lianfa, Samsung and Ziguang. Although Apple bought Intel's baseband chip business, it has not yet launched a 5G chip.

With the issuance of 5G commercial license by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on June 6, 2019, the commercialization of 5G in China has been accelerated. In the face of major opportunities, the 5G chip competition of these five 5G mobile phone chip manufacturers has been accelerated and smoky at one time.

HUAWEI

In January this year, Huawei released the world's first 5g baseband chip supporting SA and NSA dual-mode in Beijing. The single chip supports 2G / 3G / 4G / 5G network system. The downlink peak speed of sub-6ghz band reaches 4.6gbps, while that of millimeter wave band reaches 6.5gbps at the fastest speed.

Then, in July, Huawei officially unveiled its first mass-produced 5G smartphone.

On September 6, Huawei officially unveiled the world's first 5G SoC integrated with 5G baseband at the IFA Show in Germany.

Two weeks later, Huawei held a new product launch in Germany, officially releasing the long-awaited mate 30 series flagship mobile phone. Among them, mate 305g and mate 30pro 5g are both equipped with Kirin 9905g chip (sold on November 1 from the price of 4999 yuan by the Bank of China), which is the first to realize the commercial use of 5g SOC.

high pass

Although Qualcomm launched Snapdragon X50 baseband for a long time, many manufacturers have also launched many 5G phones based on Cellong 855 plus X50 baseband this year, but Cellong X50 baseband is not downwardly compatible with 2, 3 and 4G networks, and only supports NSA 5G networking. According to the requirements of China Mobile, 5G phones that only support NSA will no longer be allowed to enter the network from January 1, 2020. This also means that Snapdragon X 50 is just a transitional product.

In response, Qualcomm soon launched a dual-mode snapdragon x55 baseband that supports NSA / SA at the same time. It can support sub-6ghz / millimeter wave band, DSS (dynamic spectrum sharing), carrier aggregation, with a downlink peak rate of 7.5gbps and an uplink peak rate of 3gbps. At the same time, the snapdragon x55 is also downward compatible with the 2 / 3 / 4G network.

But earlier this month, Qualcomm

On December 10, Xiaomi's redmi launched the k305g version with Xiaolong 765G, and for the first time, it pulled the price of 5g dual-mode mobile phone to within 2000 yuan.

Although the integrated 5g baseband of the snapdragon 765 series can also support SA / NSA dual-mode, sub-6ghz and millimeter wave, it is castrated in the supported frequency band and rate. For example, the downlink peak rate dropped to 3.7gbps, and the uplink peak rate dropped to 1.6gbps. The sub-6ghz only supports n41 and N78.

It is worth noting that China Mobile requires that the 5g frequency band of mobile phones entering the mobile network next year must support n41, N78 and N79, while the few frequency bands supported may lead to the problem of signal instability or even the lack of 5g signal search when users use 5g. This also makes the redmi K30 5g version encounter some controversy after its launch.

However, it is also reported that at present, China Mobile has only opened n41 band. In the next two years, n41 band will be the main band (China Telecom and China Unicom are mainly n87 band, which is also the commonly used frequency band in the world). However, China Mobile will definitely go on N79 band, so if it can support N79 band at the same time, it will be better.

Samsung

On August 15, 2018, Samsung released its first 5G baseband chip through its official website.

At the MWC exhibition in February this year, Samsung released two versions of galaxy S105G, one is the version with Qualcomm snapdragon 855 and external snapdragon X50 5g baseband; the other is the version with exynos 9820 processor and external exynos modem 5100 5g baseband, but it was not officially released until April.

It should be noted that only NSA 5G single modules were supported when, Exynos Modem 5100 was released. However, on September 4, Samsung unveiled the first 5G SoC integrated with 5G baseband ahead of the official launch of Huawei's Kirin 9905G.

In order to speed up the commercial use of its 5G SoC, Samsung launched the Exynos 980 to the domestic mobile phone brand Vivo. on November 7, vivo, together with Samsung, held a press conference in Beijing to jointly showcase Samsung's latest Exynos 9805G dual-mode chip, announcing that it will launch a new mobile phone product based on Exynos 9805G dual-mode chip in December.

On December 16, a new 5g mobile phone - vivo x30 conference was held in Guilin, and the 5g version of vivo x30 series with exynos 980 was officially released, priced from 3298 yuan.

MediaTek

At the 2018 Taipei International computer Show (COMPUTEX 2018), Lianfa officially announced the launch of the first 5G baseband chip.

On November 26, Lianfa officially announced its first 5G SoC chip in Shenzhen.

On December 26, oppo held a new product conference in Hangzhou and officially released the oppo Reno 3 series. Among them, oppo Reno 3 Pro with Qualcomm snapdragon 765G is priced at 3999 yuan, while the first one with Lianfa Tianji 1000L is priced at 3399 yuan.

It should be noted that compared with Tianji 1000, Tianji 1000L is a subtraction version, mainly because the main frequency of the large core is reduced to 2.2GHz, and the number of G77 GPU cores is also reduced from 9 to 7.

On the day before the release of oppo Reno 3, MediaTek also held a media communication meeting in Beijing, reiterating that after nearly a month, after the release of Qualcomm snapdragon 865 / 765 series, Tianji 1000 has maintained its leading position in many aspects.

Dr. Li Yanqu, Associate Director of the Wireless Communications Division of MediaTek, stressed that Tianji 1000 is the first 5G SoC, in the world that integrates 5G baseband and WiFi6, and the first 5G SoC. in the world that supports 5G 5G dual cards and dual standby. Thanks to the addition of dual carrier aggregation technology, Tianji 1000 can reach 4.7 Gbpss downlink peak rate and 2.5Gbpss uplink peak rate under Sub-6GHz network, which is the fastest 5G SoC. under Sub 6GHz. At the same time, Tianji 1000 5G baseband is also the most power-saving 5G baseband. In addition, Tianji 1000 also uses Arm's latest A77 and G77 kernels, which also reaches the flagship level in performance, and Tiangui 1000's AI kernel architecture is also extremely leading, still ranking first in the AI benchmark rankings.

In addition, Li Yanji also said that the RF Alliance (qorvo, skyworks, Murata) of MediaTek fully supports the N1, n41, N78 and N79 frequency bands. In contrast, Qualcomm uses a closed system, and the snapdragon 765 series does not support the N79 and N1 bands.

In addition, in order to compete for the mid market, MediaTek is also about to launch the Tianji 800 series, and it is expected that there will be relevant mobile phone products on the market in the second quarter of next year.

Exhibition sharp

At the same time that Huawei, Qualcomm, Samsung and MediaTek accelerate the promotion of commercial use, the 5g prototype equipped with zhanruichunteng 510 has also passed the comprehensive verification of thal Laboratory of China Academy of communications and entered the commercial use state in a low-key way.

It is understood that this fully validated 5g mobile phone uses a combination of high-performance processor Huben T710 + chunteng 5105g multi-mode baseband chip. Support 5g mainstream frequency bands such as n41, N78 and N79, fully pass the tests under SA and NSA networking modes, and support 2t4r, SRS antenna selection, high power and other technologies.

Ivy 510 is zhanrui's first 5g baseband chip launched at MWC in February this year. Based on TSMC's 12NM process technology, it supports SA and NSA dual-mode, band 78, band 79 and band 41 three mainstream 5g frequency bands, while supporting downward compatibility with 2 / 3 / 4G network. However, Zhan Rui didn't disclose the theoretical peak rate of the Ivy 510. However, according to the data measured by China Academy of information and communication for Ivy 510, its downward peak speed is 1.6gbps. However, at present, the chip is still in the process of debugging, and this data may have room for further improvement.

The Huben T710 is a high-performance AP chip released by zhanrui in August this year. It uses four cortex-a75 cores with the main frequency of 2GHz + four cortex-a55 cores with the main frequency of 1.8GHz. At the same time, it also integrates heterogeneous dual core NPU, with excellent AI performance. In August this year, it surpassed the Xiaolong 855 plus and Kirin 810 with a high score of 28097, ranking first in the AI benchmark ranking.

As zhanrui 5g chip enters the commercial state, it will undoubtedly make the choice of intelligent terminal manufacturers more diversified, promote the real popularity of 5g mobile phones, more conducive to promoting the application of 5g in a wider range and more fields, and promote the deep integration of more levels of industry.

In addition, zhanrui has previously disclosed that it will launch 5g SOC chip based on 7Nm process with stronger performance in 2020.

Summary:

In terms of the 5g baseband indicators of Huawei, Qualcomm, Samsung, MediaTek and zhanrui, all of the five manufacturers now have 5g baseband that supports NSA / SA dual-mode. However, in contrast, Qualcomm's new snapdragon X52 does not support N79 band, while others support N79 band.

In addition, at present, only 5g chips of Qualcomm, Huawei and Samsung support millimeter wave band, while 5g chips of MediaTek and zhanrui do not. However, according to the data shared by Dr. Li Yanji, associate director of the wireless communication business department of MediaTek yesterday, only three of the 56 operators that have launched 5g networks in the world have millimeter wave networks, and the three also have sub-6ghz networks. Obviously, from the current point of view, whether 5g mobile phone supports millimeter wave has little impact.

In terms of the peak up and down speed of 5g baseband chips in sub-6ghz network, the up and down speed of Tianji 1000 is indeed the fastest, followed by Samsung exynos980 and Huawei Kirin 9905g. However, Qualcomm snapdragon x55 and snapdragon 765 series integrated with snapdragon X52 have not announced the up and down rate of sub-6ghz band. However, it is expected that the peak up and down speed of Xiaolong 765 series will still be lower than Tianji 1000. In contrast, zhanrui's Ivy 510 is indeed weaker in the downward peak speed, but it is not much different from kylin's 9905g.

Judging from the 5G commercial progress of Huawei, Qualcomm, Samsung, Lianfa and Xianrui, Qualcomm is undoubtedly the first to enter 5G commercial in the world, but it is realized through the form of X505G baseband, and does not support SA network. Similarly, Samsung and Huawei followed with the launch of their own 5G baseband 5G phones. Huawei is undoubtedly the leading player in the commercial progress of the 5G SoC, which launched the Mate 305G version of the Kirin 9905G phone last month. Qualcomm, Samsung and MediaTek's 5G SoC, on the other hand, landed on the mobile phone in the last month of 2019. In addition, although the progress of Zhanrui in 5G commercial is a little slow, it has also realized the commercial state of Ivy 510 5G prototype by the end of the year. And the show has revealed that it will launch 7nm's 5G SoC, next year.

Although Huawei, Qualcomm, Samsung, MediaTek and zhanrui are five 5g mobile phone chip manufacturers, Huawei's 5g mobile phone chip is only for its own use. Although Samsung has opened its 5g mobile phone chip to vivo, its main purpose should be to use vivo to restrain Huawei, but in order not to affect the sales volume of Samsung's 5g mobile phone, it may not release to other more companies Mobile phone brand manufacturer. So the choice of other mobile phone manufacturers is only Qualcomm, MediaTek and zhanrui. But even so, mobile phone manufacturers have more options than when Qualcomm was the only alternative.

In any case, we can foresee that 5g will really enter the stage of large-scale commercial use next year, and the mobile phone market will undoubtedly remain the focus of competition among 5g chip manufacturers, which is also expected to accelerate the decline of 5g mobile phone prices, so as to promote the popularity of 5g mobile phones.