5G smartphones have basically become the standard for most modern smartphones in the high end and upper mid range market. However, the entry level segments have yet to see the same level of 5G penetration. While Realme had plans on changing this, it appears that an affordable budget 5G phone is still sometime away.

According to Madhav Sheth, CEO of the Chinese brand’s Indian unit, it will be difficult for the company to launch a 5G enabled handset in the region that is priced under 10,000 INR (roughly 130 US Dollars). The senior executive further added that the company is actively working on lowering the price tag of a 5G phone without compromising on specifications and performance. However, this is not a simple task and it will likely take sometime to achieve.

In other words, there is currently no set timeline for Realme’s first affordable 5G phone as of right now. The top official told ET that “We have to make more affordable 5G devices. We want to be a prominent hardware provider for the government’s digitization vision with 5G. There are no new 4G chips in the making, so if you need any good performance phone, we have to bring in 5G chips. For brands, the biggest challenge is not to compromise on other specs by making 5G more affordable.”

Furthermore, Sheth added that while the sub 10,000 INR 5G model in 2022 is difficult, it might be possible next year since “we have already started seeing the democratization of 5G technology.” The CEO also believes that 5G shouldn’t be used as a marketing tool to sell your device and continued to talk about the ongoing supply chain issues. He said that the gap between demand and supply is much better than before.

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The majority of the new smartphones getting launched now comes with support for 5G connectivity even though the infrastructure for the next-generation communication is still limited to certain countries only.

India is yet to start 5G trials in the country but smartphones in the upper-midrange to premium segment come with 5G support. But, phone manufacturers are aiming to capture a wider maker share with 5G support in budget phones.

In line with that, Madhav Sheth, Vice President of Realme and CEO of Realme India and Europe has revealed that the brand is planning to launch a 5G smartphone priced under ₹10,000 ($137) by the end of next year, i.e. 2022.

This was revealed in the first edition of Realme Global 5G Summit which was hosted in partnership with Counterpoint Research, GSMA, and Qualcomm. At the event, the company gave us an insight into their plans for the industry going forward.

Realme’s plan of launching a ₹10,000 5G smartphone seems a bit ambitious but it’s quite possible given that the company already has a budget 5G smartphone priced under ₹15,000 in the Indian market — Realme 8 5G, which costs ₹14,999.

At the summit, the company pledged to bring the technology to more users worldwide. In 2020, Realme launched 14 5G phones in 21 markets, accounting for around 40 percent of all its products. By 2022, Realme aims to increase the number of its 5G product offerings to over 20, upping the ratio to 70 percent across 50 markets.

The Chinese company is aiming to have 100 million 5G phone consumers within the next three years and to reach that target, it is planning to establish over 10 5G pop-up stores around the world in 2021 where potential customers will be able to experience 5G through cloud gaming, augmented reality (AR), and live broadcasting, among others.

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LG is expected to launch an affordable 5G handset later this year. In their Q2 2020 earnings report, the company talked about strengthening its ODM strategy and released a device that can be available to a larger market.

The Q2 2020 financial report revealed that the South Korean tech giant has been noticeably affected by the Coronavirus pandemic. LG smartphone sales dropped by 19 percent year on year but grew 31 percent quarter on quarter after supply chains stabilized and lockdown measures eased, especially in markets like the US and Europe. The launch of the LG Velvet also helped bump sales during this period.

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According to an LG official, the company’s Mobile Communications division (smartphones) is working on improving the profitability of its business and become more competitive in the current market. This arrived after the official was asked regarding a possible release of a $100 or even $200 5G smartphone ahead of its competitors in markets like the US or China.

Furthermore, LG is already in talks with chipmakers and ODMs to bring 5G handset to the mass market and plans on being the first brand to do so. This would help boost 5G enabled devices since its price of entry is around a budget 4G phone. The company is also looking to launch an affordable 5G device in markets like South Korea and the US in the second half of 2020, although, an exact launch date is unknown.

UP NEXT: Pent-up Smartphone demand after lockdown pushes June 2020 sales volumes in India

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MediaTek has just revealed its new processor earlier today (18th May 2020). The Dimensity 820 SoC is the latest entry in the company’s Dimensity 800 series, which was announced back at CES. The new processor feature 5G support and will be housed in smartphones that will launch later this year.

Smartphones with 5G networking have become more common in recent times. When they had originally launched, only the most expensive flagship models feature the newer and faster bandwidth. But with MediaTek announcing the new Dimensity 820 SoC, more 5G enabled handsets may soon arrive in lower and more affordable smartphone segments as well.

According to Dr. Yenchi Lee, Assistant General Manager of MediaTek’s Wireless Communications Business Unit, “Our Dimensity 1000 is already powering impressive flagship 5G devices in a number of markets. With the new Dimensity 820, we’re now making 5G much more accessible. The Dimensity 820 stands out beyond competitors by offering four high-performance Arm Cortex-A76 cores at 2.6GHz within its octa-core CPU, delivering superb performance and responsiveness, among its incredible AI, gaming and photography experiences.

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Talking about the new processor’s capabilities, the Dimensity 820 supports MediaTek’s APU 3.0 that helps in providing more powerful camera features. Thanks to Imagiq 5.0, the processor’s ISP, smartphones that ship with this chip can house up to 4 cameras with sensors size as high as 80 megapixels. This chipset also supports Multiframe 4K video HDR and is optimized for gaming as well.

In terms of networking, the Dimensity 820 supports global sub-6GHz 5G networks in Asia, North America, and Europe. According to MediaTek, the new chip also offers “higher average speeds and a seamless handover between two 5G connection areas for the most reliable connectivity on the go.” While the chipset seems quite impressive right now, we will have to wait for the launch to see how it actually stacks up against its primary competition, Qualcomm, and its Snapdragon 765G and 768G processors.

UP NEXT: POCO India is crowdsourcing the name of its upcoming TWS earbuds

(Via)

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5G smartphones are going mainstream and this year, all the major smartphone makers are expected to have a couple of 5G phones in their portfolios. While there are already several 5G devices in the market, almost every one of them is in the premium segment.

Smartphone makers are currently working on bringing down the cost of 5G phones and thanks to the new chipsets from Qualcomm and MediaTek, some of the manufacturers have managed to launch mid-range 5G smartphones.

However, Chinese giant Huawei’s President for 5G product line, Yang Chaobin believes that 5G smartphones priced around $150 are expected to get launched by the end of 2020 or in early 2021.

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Huawei, along with its sub-brand Honor, has launched a number of 5G smartphones in 2019, including Mate 30 5G series, Mate 20 X 5G, Mate X 5G, Nova 6 5G, Honor V30 series, among others. The company recently announced that its total worldwide 5G smartphone shipments have exceeded the mark of 6.9 million units.

According to a research agency in China, an estimated five million 5G capable smartphones were sold in December 2019 alone and the figures are expected to rise further. It is expected that more than 20 percent of the smartphones under the 2000 Yuan (roughly $290) will be 5G-enabled this year. By 2021, the same statistics are expected to be applicable across the globe.

While several companies have launched 5G smartphones in the market, most of them are exclusive to the Chinese market only, which includes the likes of Xiaomi, Vivo, and Huawei. This is also because China has already started offering commercial 5G services, the only country to do so apart from South Korea and United States.

As per the report, local OEMs in China are expected to sell over 150 million 5G smartphone units in 2020 while the global smartphone market sees a marginal market rise of 0.7 percent overall.

UP NEXT: Telecom equipment giant Huawei collaborates with Airtel and Vodafone to start 5G trials in India

(Via)

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