As MWC 2017 opens, ZTE is making a big push to ignite interest in 5G wireless networks. Over the weekend the company released an announcement about 5G testing that they are planning to commence in China. To make that happen, one of the tools that is needed is a 5G capable phone to access the new network and ZTE revealed such a device at MWC 2017 tentatively dubbing it the ZTE Gigabit Phone.
Besides the support for 5G, which may not be exactly 100% yet, the new Gigabit Phone is also the first device shown in public equipped with the forthcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor. That is important as the Snapdragon 835 comes equipped with the Snapdragon X16 LTE modem.
That modem is capable of handling things like carrier aggregation, 4×4 MIMO, access to LTE-U frequencies, and support for 256-QAM. From a technical standpoint, this may not actually be considered 5G by some, but it is definitely capable of supporting faster speeds than what is on the market right now. According to ZTE, the device is currently capable of achieving 1GB download speeds.
We hope to have more on the ZTE Gigabit Phone later including full specifications, some images and perhaps get our hands on one of the units for a quick look. Be sure to check back for more coverage from MWC 2017.
source: ZTE (5G trials in China)
1GB != 1Gbit (1Gb)
Impressive!! I’ll be looking for that hands on review.