Qualcomm reveals Snapdragon 855 with 802.11ax, 802.11ay and WPA3

[Balance]

Qualcomm revealed their new flagship chipset today in Hawaii aimed at the high-end phones of 2019, and it comes with a lot of firsts. The Snapdragon 855 mobile platform features Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) support, 802.11ay support in the 60GHz band and WPA3 security support, all 3 not seen before in any mobile chipset.

Qualcomm® Wi-Fi 6-ready mobile platform

• Wi-Fi Standards: 802.11ax-ready, 802.11ac Wave 2, 802.11a/b/g, 802.11n
• Wi-Fi Spectral Bands: 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz
• Channel Utilization: 20/40/80 MHz
• MIMO Configuration: 2x2 (2-stream)
• MU-MIMO
• Dual-band simultaneous (DBS)
• Key Features: 8x8 sounding (up to 2x improvement over 4x4 sounding devices), Target Wakeup Time for up to 67% better power efficiency, latest security with WPA3

Qualcomm® 60 GHz Wi-Fi mobile platform

• Wi-Fi Standards: 802.11ad, 802.11ay
• Wi-Fi Spectral Band: 60 GHz
• Peak speed: 10 Gbps
• Key Features: multi-gigabit speeds, wireequivalent latency, always-on ambient Wi-Fi sensing

More info

• Press release: https://www.qualcomm.com/news/relea...hip-snapdragon-855-mobile-platform-new-decade
• Product page: https://www.qualcomm.com/products/snapdragon-855-mobile-platform
• Product brief: https://www.qualcomm.com/media/documents/files/snapdragon-855-mobile-platform-product-brief.pdf

 

[aSmallWorld]

it won't change anything since it's still 2x2 and 256 QAM @80Mhz ... Max speeds will stay at 866mbps.

 

[RMerlin]

it won't change anything since it's still 2x2 and 256 QAM @80Mhz ... Max speeds will stay at 866mbps.

It will be more efficient than 802.11ac however.

 

[Balance]

it won't change anything since it's still 2x2 and 256 QAM @80Mhz ... Max speeds will stay at 866mbps.

Do you have a source on that (max 256 QAM)? Max. link speed for 2x2 80MHz with 802.11ax is 1200 Mb/s, plus thanks to OFDMA much more efficient scheduling (especially with 8x8 sounding).

 

[thiggins]

Note the “ax ready” weasel words. If draft ax were supported, it would spec DFS, 160 MHz and 1024 QAM support.

 

[OBENZ]

so no real benefit from getting these draft ax routers yet?im eying the galaxy s10 which should have the Snapdragon 855 so tempted to get a ax router

 

[RMerlin]

so no real benefit from getting these draft ax routers yet?

Not on the wireless front, but they typically also sport better CPUs and RAM than older models, so you do get some benefit out of them. It's a matter of determining whether these benefits are worth the cost, plus the slight risk that wifi-related issues might appear later on as AX clients start to appear on the market.

 

[OBENZ]

Not on the wireless front, but they typically also sport better CPUs and RAM than older models, so you do get some benefit out of them. It's a matter of determining whether these benefits are worth the cost, plus the slight risk that wifi-related issues might appear later on as AX clients start to appear on the market.

Thanks for clarifying, I'll wait a bit then. Higher RAM and better CPU are not worth 500usd in my book, once issues ,if any, are ironed out I'll bite. I just hope these dont have sleep issues I see on some Android phones who are kept awake by the router

 

[sfx2000]

Not on the wireless front, but they typically also sport better CPUs and RAM than older models, so you do get some benefit out of them. It's a matter of determining whether these benefits are worth the cost, plus the slight risk that wifi-related issues might appear later on as AX clients start to appear on the market.

Even on the Wireless side - improved firmware inside the wireless chip, along with more powerful CPU and general clean up can help with wifi performance, this was noted on the main site when 11ac AP's were tested against legacy and 11n clients.

The additional radios can also be a big help with performance at a given range, even with older clients.