X60 was announced early 2020. Apple probably missed it by a month for production.
The bottom line is kinda this... No different from what we went through on 4g/lte modems.
Rev 1 moderns were pretty bad. Didn't support many bands. Were power hogs.
Rev 2 fixed compatibility and marginally better power. Didn't have final key features telecoms wanted to roll out. Power not great.
Rev 3 were basically right on. All key features present. Power decent Marginal improvements made after that.
Someone asked if the 888 was SoC with X60. Answer is yes.
So the first phone to use the X60 won't be out until early 2021 - The iPhone 12 was released in October 2020. Not sure the X60 was ready for mass production then?
To be fair the 5G network is still in its infancy so plenty of time for faster 5G modems to be added to mobile phones.
X60 was announced early 2020. Apple probably missed it by a month for production.
The bottom line is kinda this... No different from what we went through on 4g/lte modems.
Rev 1 moderns were pretty bad. Didn't support many bands. Were power hogs.
Rev 2 fixed compatibility and marginally better power. Didn't have final key features telecoms wanted to roll out. Power not great.
Rev 3 were basically right on. All key features present. Power decent Marginal improvements made after that.
Someone asked if the 888 was SoC with X60. Answer is yes.
So the first phone to use the X60 won't be out until early 2021 - The iPhone 12 was released in October 2020. Not sure the X60 was ready for mass production then?
To be fair the 5G network is still in its infancy so plenty of time for faster 5G modems to be added to mobile phones.
Xiaomi’s Mi 11 has the 888 and integrated X60. It's already on sale. Iphone 12 went on sale 2 months ago. Like I said, they missed it by a month'ish.
X60 was announced early 2020. Apple probably missed it by a month for production.
The bottom line is kinda this... No different from what we went through on 4g/lte modems.
Rev 1 moderns were pretty bad. Didn't support many bands. Were power hogs.
Rev 2 fixed compatibility and marginally better power. Didn't have final key features telecoms wanted to roll out. Power not great.
Rev 3 were basically right on. All key features present. Power decent Marginal improvements made after that.
Someone asked if the 888 was SoC with X60. Answer is yes.
So the first phone to use the X60 won't be out until early 2021 - The iPhone 12 was released in October 2020. Not sure the X60 was ready for mass production then?
To be fair the 5G network is still in its infancy so plenty of time for faster 5G modems to be added to mobile phones.
Xiaomi’s Mi 11 has the 888 and integrated X60. It's already on sale. Iphone 12 went on sale 2 months ago. Like I said, they missed it by a month'ish.
It’s also a matter of how many units must be made starting at what time. And I’m assuming the iPhones put greater pressure on the manufacturers in that sense; and therefore also the schedule.
X60 was announced early 2020. Apple probably missed it by a month for production.
The bottom line is kinda this... No different from what we went through on 4g/lte modems.
Rev 1 moderns were pretty bad. Didn't support many bands. Were power hogs.
Rev 2 fixed compatibility and marginally better power. Didn't have final key features telecoms wanted to roll out. Power not great.
Rev 3 were basically right on. All key features present. Power decent Marginal improvements made after that.
Someone asked if the 888 was SoC with X60. Answer is yes.
So the first phone to use the X60 won't be out until early 2021 - The iPhone 12 was released in October 2020. Not sure the X60 was ready for mass production then?
To be fair the 5G network is still in its infancy so plenty of time for faster 5G modems to be added to mobile phones.
To Apple and all other companies the state of 5G isn't really relevant. It's how users perceive the state of 5G. Just take a look at the iPhone 12 presentation where 5G was cornerstone of the entire event from what I've heard.
Yes, 5G is in its infancy but last year in China (a major market for Apple) about 1 in every 3 phones sold was a 5G phone with the price of entry to those phones plummeting by the month. That was a huge pie Apple was missing out on. And infancy or not, China is pulling far ahead in its own 5G roll out and is way ahead in services that play off 5G.
Apple had to deliver something with the iPhone 12. Was it a 'kludge' solution? Depending on how you look at it, very much so. The X55 was EOL in flagships and, in Apple's case, is bolted on to the SoC.
Now, after the Kirin 9000 from last year, the SD888 is about to ship with the X60 on SoC. .
That's life. Apple now depends on QC and QC wasn't going to change its rollout plans for Apple and Apple obviously had no plans for QC modems until intel left them high and dry.
The only other option they had was to release a phone early this year (2021)with the X60 bolted on and that was probably more trouble than it was worth. The result is Apple is shipping last year's 5G tech (technically announced in February 2019) bolted on and probably sacrificing things like high refresh rates as a result which also leaves them behind the flagship curve in that area too.
Sometimes bets will pay off and sometimes they won't. Apple's 5G strategy imploded. A few years from now we'll probably get the finer details on what went down. Right now though Apple is racing to bring its homebrew modem to market. That's another bet but they always have QC to fall back on if necessary. Having options is always good.
Interested to see where Samsung goes with respect to charging, i.e., will they try to copy Apple’s MagSafe implementation? Power and charging is one area where Apple seems to be taking somewhat tentative steps. The Lightning port is probably holding Apple back in terms of fast charging (and direct peripheral attachment) compared to USB-C, but the speculation about a “portless” iPhone design may make a move to USB-C moot.
Who knows, maybe Apple will do something like a proprietary “Lightning II” connector that one-ups USB-C both from a power and connectivity standpoint. EU regulators would have a major hissy fit unless whatever Apple does is also connector-level-compatible with USB-C, at least for charging purposes. Apple could do it, but going portless may make more sense if they can find a way to improve wireless charging performance and efficiency.
Sounds like pretty good stuff if Android is your preference.
How much child and slave labor will they be using? More than Apple?
Perhaps AppleInsider should change its name to AnyBrandInsider since we get glowing reports of the competition on a regular basis.
WOW. So you're offended when someone makes a better product than Apple? If you're a sports fan, do you only read articles where your team won?
If they went to a news site specifically just about their team I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be all too happy if that place started filling up with articles about other teams doing stuff unrelated to their favourite team. It's not always relevant simply because it's the same sport/market/continent/whatever. So… you know… this isn't SamsungInsider.
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To be fair the 5G network is still in its infancy so plenty of time for faster 5G modems to be added to mobile phones.
Yes, 5G is in its infancy but last year in China (a major market for Apple) about 1 in every 3 phones sold was a 5G phone with the price of entry to those phones plummeting by the month. That was a huge pie Apple was missing out on. And infancy or not, China is pulling far ahead in its own 5G roll out and is way ahead in services that play off 5G.
Apple had to deliver something with the iPhone 12. Was it a 'kludge' solution? Depending on how you look at it, very much so. The X55 was EOL in flagships and, in Apple's case, is bolted on to the SoC.
Now, after the Kirin 9000 from last year, the SD888 is about to ship with the X60 on SoC. .
That's life. Apple now depends on QC and QC wasn't going to change its rollout plans for Apple and Apple obviously had no plans for QC modems until intel left them high and dry.
The only other option they had was to release a phone early this year (2021)with the X60 bolted on and that was probably more trouble than it was worth. The result is Apple is shipping last year's 5G tech (technically announced in February 2019) bolted on and probably sacrificing things like high refresh rates as a result which also leaves them behind the flagship curve in that area too.
Sometimes bets will pay off and sometimes they won't. Apple's 5G strategy imploded. A few years from now we'll probably get the finer details on what went down. Right now though Apple is racing to bring its homebrew modem to market. That's another bet but they always have QC to fall back on if necessary. Having options is always good.
Who knows, maybe Apple will do something like a proprietary “Lightning II” connector that one-ups USB-C both from a power and connectivity standpoint. EU regulators would have a major hissy fit unless whatever Apple does is also connector-level-compatible with USB-C, at least for charging purposes. Apple could do it, but going portless may make more sense if they can find a way to improve wireless charging performance and efficiency.