Huawei's 5G modem is larger and less efficient than Qualcomm's, a teardown reveals

13 August 2019
Qualcomm's and Samsung's 5G chips are superior in almost every way.

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Lol and so what... Most sleepy info in a long time in here...
Coukd understand a article telling Huawei 5000mah batteries are much bigger then all other, that somthing... But that just me i guees.

    • J
    • Johan
    • U{r
    • 13 Aug 2019

    Sonu4678, 13 Aug 2019Man, GSMArena community has become such a Huawei base that ... moreThis has been the case for the past 1.5 years. Every comment section is full of Huawei and Sony fanboys. And fanbase of other Chinese OEMs .

    All they do is drag apple into everything.

    Majority of gsmarena's commenters come from developing countries . Just go to their YouTube comment section you will get the idea.

      • A
      • Aditya Akash
      • 7kb
      • 13 Aug 2019

      How is this ever relevant? Why does this prove? This article sounds like the writer is TRYING SO HARD to criticize Huawei just so that he could maybe fill is monthly quota of publishing news article.

      There has never been a guideline on how to build modems and how efficiency should look like inside one. You're just publishing useless spec critique on a Gen1 product?

      The Author needs better ideas than this to chase after companies. The headline to this article was enough to tell people that it's just another clickbait to the things they'll never care about.

      Don't get me wrong, I've been an avid follower of GSMArena for more than a decade, but this just a low quality article for your standards.

        Lol... I'll never buy any Huawei phones

        Their 5G modem is basically inferior to Qualcomm in every way...no need to justify.... they're behind and that's why they delayed launching their 5G phones

          • F
          • Fandroid
          • apJ
          • 13 Aug 2019

          I've used Huawei Mate 20 X 5G along with other Qualcomm based devices like ZTE Axon 10 Pro, Oppo Reno 5G. There is a huge difference in battery life in terms of Talk Time. Qualcomm 5G devices had way better battery life as compared to Huawei

            • ?
            • Anonymous
            • sxs
            • 13 Aug 2019

            Oh my bad....I thought this was another article claiming Huawei broke another reccoder selling millions of phones more than it's competition..

              Anonymous, 13 Aug 2019I’m not even a fan of snapdragon even, but when it comes to... moreGotta agree.... Huawei makes one of the best modems in the business. They are better in connectivity. My midrange Huawei phone performs better than the flagship OnePlus

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • rJF
                • 13 Aug 2019

                Understood, it's years R&d vs cheap technology

                  • ?
                  • Anonymous
                  • 4f$
                  • 13 Aug 2019

                  Selective reporting at its finest. If anyone clicked on the original source, it was mentioned that Huawei's choice to go with one 5G/4G/3G/2G modem chip is the way forward:

                  "Despite those issues, IHS noted that Huawei’s reliance on one 5G/4G/3G/2G modem rather than two separate 5G and 4G/3G/2G modems is the way forward, as it enables convergence of both the modem and related parts such as radio-tuning RF front ends and radio antennas. The Mate 20X has separate 4G and 5G radio tuners, but over time, those parts will become more integrated as well, resulting in greater power efficiency. Qualcomm is expected to be the only real alternative for carriers and OEMs interested in supporting millimeter wave 5G, as it’s already offering complete modem-to-antenna designs; its only multi-vendor rival, MediaTek, has focused on non-millimeter wave parts."

                  "IHS expects that the next step — integration of 5G/4G/3G/2G multimode modems directly inside smartphone SoC processors — will take place in 2020, eliminating the need for a separate modem while “significantly” cutting related component costs by eliminating the need for separate modem RAM and power management chips. MediaTek has already announced such a chip for 2020 devices as the 5G SoC, minus millimeter wave, but competitors will likely include a more integrated RF front end with full support for both millimeter wave and sub-6GHz 5G, enabling “better, cheaper, and faster 5G smartphones” to come to market over the next year."


                  First gen hardware is usually a bit rough around the edges. Eventually Huawei's 5G chip will become the better option as the market shifts in their direction.

                    • ?
                    • Anonymous
                    • Xqa
                    • 13 Aug 2019

                    Did GSMArena check for the accuracy of the source ? According to Huawei's site : On mmWave spectrum, the chipset offers download speed of up 6.5Gbps.

                      • ?
                      • Anonymous
                      • fFC
                      • 13 Aug 2019

                      Maybe Huawei designs this modem for mobile PC and mobile device (not smartphone) used. Otherwise, this Balong 5000 modem will be useless when new Kirin chip with 5g support comes out.

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • ssY
                        • 13 Aug 2019

                        I’m not even a fan of snapdragon even, but when it comes to modem and LTE speed not even a 5G snapdragon Soc are really good and this from my experience with one plus (one plus 6T last one plus phone I used) , Htc, pixel and some of Lg g line.

                          • ?
                          • Anonymous
                          • ssY
                          • 13 Aug 2019

                          [deleted post]Nothing new as usual.

                            • ?
                            • Anonymous
                            • ssY
                            • 13 Aug 2019

                            Anonymous, 13 Aug 2019Do you realize that: 1. Qualcomm bought loads of innovat... moreThey asked Chinese manufacturing cause labor charge are cheaper this the main reason.

                              Teardown doesn't relieve anything except the fact that it's larger. Larger doesn't necessarily equal less efficient that much more depends on the architecture it self, employed RF analogue design and digital signal processing unit (DSP) including it's operational speed (400 MHz to 1.2 GHz range usually). Real question is which DSP design Huawei incorporated (in house, CEVA or Tensilica). I doubt it's CEVA, i don't know about their in hause solutions and I knew Tensilica one's are in the lead (in many area's last two generations portfolio wide) when compared to the Qualcomm employed solutions. So it could actually turn out to be a much better & power friendlier solution.

                                Ohhhh, and then people say huawei 5G is better xd

                                  [deleted post]Oh well, you found me.
                                  Here, take this F as a reward.

                                    • ?
                                    • Anonymous
                                    • 39h
                                    • 13 Aug 2019

                                    [deleted post]Do you realize that:

                                    1. Qualcomm bought loads of innovation and patents regarding 5G and earlier, and did not invent everything themselves?
                                    2. Half the process of designing a functional chip is done by the actual fabricator
                                    3. Qualcomm are not able to manufacture chips -- they ask a Chinese company to do it for them.

                                    Inform yourself before you go off on the "China copied and can't make anything on their own" bullshit.

                                      • ?
                                      • Anonymous
                                      • 39h
                                      • 13 Aug 2019

                                      Is this the new level of spec-mongering? People caring about the physical sizes of individual chips in the phone, because GPU and CPU benchmarks are so passé?

                                      5G is a buzz. It will take years before it is as useful as 4G. And the only practical difference is faster installation of large apps. Hardly a revolution.

                                        Man, GSMArena community has become such a Huawei base that no one is even criticizing for their bad technology. if only these people were more forgiving of other brands.

                                        Well, it only shows that Chinese OEMs can only rely on their government's policies to steal a superior-tech by reverse engineering.