Today, the Taiwanese MediaTek announced its first mobile platform that supports a 5G millimeter wave – Dimensity 1050. Besides the mentioned specification, this is the low-end version of the existing Dimensity 1100 SoC.
In simpler words, the successor of the Dimensity 900 series is 1050, the successor of the Dimensity 800 series is 930, and the successor of the Dimensity 1200 is 8100.
MediaTek Dimensity 1050
The Dimensity 1050 adopts TSMC’s 6nm process. Also, the chipset comes with an octa-core CPU, including two Arm Cortex-A78 cores with a main frequency of 2.5GHz.
One of the biggest highlights of the Dimensity 1050 is the support for 5G dual-card dual-standby (5G SA+5G SA) and dual-card VoNR calls. Also, it integrates an AI processor APU 550 and supports Wi-Fi 6E 2×2 MIMO.
MediaTek Dimensity 930
As said, apart from this chip, MediaTek also released two others, the Dimensity 930 5G mobile platform supporting full-band Sub-6GHz 5G network and the Helio G99 4G mobile platform supporting 4G LTE network.
As for the Dimensity 930 5G mobile platform, it supports a full-band Sub-6GHz 5G network, as well as 2CC dual carrier aggregation and FDD+TDD hybrid duplex. Besides this, the chip also boasts the MiraVision mobile display technology, which can support FHD+ resolution 120Hz refresh rate display and HDR10+ video standard. The platform comes with the HyperEngine 3.0 Lite game engine.
Terminals using the Dimensity 930 5G mobile platform are expected to be available in the second quarter of 2022. However, terminals using the Dimensity 1050 5G mobile platform and Helio G99 4G mobile platform are expected to be available in the third quarter of 2022.
Briefly About 5G Technology
With the development of 5G technology, we can experience more mature wireless communication technology. In this sense, the global 5G solutions can be roughly divided into millimeter wave and Sub-6GHz. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. So the choice of different 5G technologies is the choice of each country based related to various factors.
Compared with Sub-6Ghz, the millimeter wave will release greater potential. For the construction of a 5G network, whether it is a Sub-6GHz or millimeter wave, there is no difference between advantages and disadvantages.
2G working frequency bands are mainly 900MHz and 1.8GHz, 3G and 4G working frequency bands are mainly 1.9GHz, 2.1GHz, and 2.6GHz, and 5G is mainly Sub-6Ghz frequency band. So for instance, for China, it is more economical to choose this solution in the early stage (NSA is also the reason). But in the future, the millimeter wave solution will inevitably be used in densely populated areas. It is not impossible to have both.
Millimeter waves refer to electromagnetic waves with wavelengths between 1 and 10 mm. Due to the short wavelength, the corresponding frequency of the millimeter wave is 30GHz-300GHz. Sub-6GHz refers to electromagnetic waves with frequencies lower than 6GHz.
According to the standards of the International Standards Organization 3GPP, the 5G frequency band is divided into two ranges: FR1 and FR2. The frequency range of the FR1 frequency band is 450MHz-6GHz, and the frequency range of the FR2 frequency band is 24.25GHz-52.6GHz. The frequencies of Sub-6GHz and mmWave fall into these two frequency bands.
The short wavelength and narrow beam characteristics of millimeter waves enhance signal resolution, transmission security, and transmission speed, as well as larger storage capacity, making it easier to solve the problem of user Internet congestion. However, the coverage area of this technology is relatively small, and it is more suitable for applications in densely populated areas such as stations, airports, and stadiums. Although Sub-6GHz is inferior to millimeter wave in terms of propagation speed and bandwidth capacity, its biggest feature is that the signal penetration is strong, the propagation distance is longer than that of a millimeter wave, and it is easier to solve the problem of signal coverage in a large area.
In contrast, the coverage of 5G networks operated by the Sub-6GHz solution is wider, and the actual measurement shows that the Sub-6GHz solution is more than 5 times the coverage of the 5G network operated by the millimeter wave solution.
In addition, the characteristics of short wavelengths make the penetration of millimeter waves far from ideal. 5G mobile phones using millimeter wave technology can block the signal by almost anything, such as phone booths, glass, trees, rain, etc. As long as there is a block between the base station and the mobile phone, the 5G network may fall back to the 4G state.