Qualcomm's new modem will give your future smartphone better battery life

Qualcomm is announcing its latest product in its mobile connectivity portfolio: the Qualcomm Snapdragon X75 modem. This is the official follow-up to the Snapdragon X70 modem the company launched in 2022.

This new modem can do everything we saw with the X70, including full band support from 600MHz to 41GHz. However, it comes with a few notable upgrades that should make your future smartphone much better than the phones we see today.

Snapdragon X75: Lots of upgrades

The first major upgrade for the X75 is the convergence of the mmWave hardware with the Sub-6 hardware. This puts all the 5G connectivity onto one module, which is the first time we’ve seen such a feat. Qualcomm claims this offers simpler manufacturing and a 25% smaller physical area that part of the chip takes up.

Additionally, having mmWave/Sub-6 on one chunk of the chip allows for up to 20% power savings over the previous X70. Obviously, that’s probably a number gleaned from lab-based testing, and real-world results will probably be lower. However, if the Snapdragon X75 can deliver even 10% better power efficiency, that’s certainly a welcome upgrade.

Elsewhere, the AI smarts of the chip have been greatly enhanced. Qualcomm claims up to 50% improved location accuracy thanks to GNSS Location Gen 2. Not only does this reduce power consumption, but it also increases connection stability. This works in tandem with the new second-gen Smart Network Selection. SNS is Qualcomm’s AI-powered system that automatically chooses the best network for your situation based on various factors, including where you are physically and what you are currently doing with the phone.

Finally, the Snapdragon X75 is somewhat future-proof. It supports the 2023 3GPP Release 17, which is the industry’s new standard for mobile connectivity. It also supports the future Release 18 as well as Wi-Fi 7. In other words, this mobile modem won’t be obsolete for quite a while.

When is the Snapdragon X75 coming out?

Qualcomm says the Snapdragon X75 will likely land with the next flagship chipset, which undoubtedly means the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. However, the company would not commit to that, so it’s possible it could land later (or even earlier). A late 2023 announcement in the SD8 Gen 3 is a safe bet, though.

Globally, we’d expect this to debut with the Galaxy S24 series. There could be other phones in select markets first, but the latest Galaxy S series phone is usually the global showcase for new Qualcomm mobile products.