MediaTek on Monday unveils Helio M80, the company’s first modem with 5G mmWave support. It is a direct successor to last year’s Helio M70 modem. Moreover, it will go head-to-head against Qualcomm’s X60 modem. The predecessor comes with 5G compatibility but did not have mmWave bands. However, the new successor comes with both mmWave and sub-6GHz on a single chip.
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As 5G rollouts accelerate, mmWave is becoming increasingly important, especially in the U.S., MediaTek’s new 5G modem integrates support for both sub-6 GHz and mmWave networks to address this opportunity and give device makers more flexibility
JC Hsu, Corporate Vice President and General Manager of MediaTek’s Wireless Communications Business Unit on Helio M80
Some key Helio M80 features include
- eight component carriers (8CC),
- Sub-6 GHz and mmWave dual connectivity and carrier aggregation,
- Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS).
Helio M80 also supports dual 5G SIM, dual 5G NSA and SA networks, and dual Voice over New Radio (VoNR) for more reliable connectivity. However, it will be some time before we get to see the modem in action. According to the company, it will launch ‘later this year’. Moreover, it is expected to make its debut alongside a smartphone sometime in 2022.
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In addition, it can achieve download speeds of up to 7.67Gbps. Upload speeds max out at 3.76Gbps. MediaTek says that it plans on launching several 5G-enabled gadgets including smartphones, PCs, Mi-Fi hotspots, broadband customer premise equipment (CPE), industrial IoT applications, and more.
Considering how connecting to a 5G network over mmWave is fairly battery-intensive. This is where – Helio M80 UltraSave Network Environment Detection and UltraSave OTA Content Awareness technologies come in. It will allow connected chipsets to dynamically adjust power configuration. In addition, it allows operating frequency based on the network environment.
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Helio M80 also integrates MediaTek’s Dynamic Bandwidth Part (BWP) technology that dynamically allocates bandwidth based on the workload.
As of now, access to mmWave 5G networks have been restricted to a handful of high-end flagship smartphones. It mostly runs on top-of-the-line Samsung and Qualcomm chipsets. This new launch will allow relatively affordable smartphones to connect to mmWave networks, something that is essential for the spread of 5G networks in the future.
