Motorola could finally start making flagship smartphones again

Qualcomm wasn’t the only company to announce some big news today at its annual Snapdragon Tech Summit. During one of the keynotes, Motorola President Sergio Buniac announced that beginning early next year, Motorola plans to release premium, flagship smartphones again.

Motorola has developed plenty of budget and mid-range devices over the last several years now, including devices like the Moto G8 Plus and the Moto One Macro. Even the newly announced $1,500 Motorola Razr has upper-mid-tier specs. But one thing the company hasn’t released recently is a solid flagship competitor.

Related: Here’s how Motorola’s next flagship can take the fight to Samsung, HUAWEI

Buniac didn’t release a detailed schedule of any sort, but he did say Motorola will utilize Qualcomm’s latest technologies to develop several competitive products early next year that provide “5G speeds greater than 5Gbps.” Motorola still plans on using the mid-range Snapdragon 765 to increase its line of 5G ready devices, but it also took things one step further, promising the “fastest 5G phone on Qualcomm’s flagship platform.”

Presumably, that means we will see at least one highly competitive Snapdragon 865 handset from Motorola next year. Hopefully, 2020 will be the year Motorola finally bucks the exclusive budget-friendly trend it has developed in recent years.