Google may release 5G smartphone next week - report - Android

Google could be releasing a 5G smartphone that might be released next week as part of its October launch of new products, Nikkei Asian Review reports. Nikkei indicated that this phone, which Google has started test production, will be launched on October 15th alongside the two 4G-enabled Pixel handsets, which are expected, as well as...

The post Google may release 5G smartphone next week: report appeared first on MobileSyrup.

Google could be releasing a 5G smartphone that might be released next week as part of its October launch of new products, Nikkei Asian Review reports.

Nikkei indicated that this phone, which Google has started test production, will be launched on October 15th alongside the two 4G-enabled Pixel handsets, which are expected, as well as with a new smart watch and a notebook.

“The two [Pixel 4] smartphones are already going into mass production and will be ready to ship after Google’s [new products] unveiling next week,” one of the sources told Nikkei. “Google is also working on a version with 5G technology, which is in test production.”

The report indicated that the 5G variant will include a Snapdragon 855 mobile platform. There wasn’t much else revealed in terms of other specs that the phone would have.

If this is true, then Google will be the first U.S. company to directly challenge Apple and other leading hardware manufacturers like Samsung and Huawei to produce a 5G-enabled phone, Nikkei noted.

The release of this phone would also take a stab at Microsoft, which just announced new hardware and revealed it was re-entering the smartphone market with a new impressive foldable phone.

Google also has the cash to be spending on new hardware. Nikkei noted that the company has about $117 billion (about $155 billion CAD), while its competitor Apple has about $102 billion (about $135 billion CAD).

“Bringing together software and hardware … does have a lot of synergistic value … and the main way to do that today for our core [search and software] products is by using hardware,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai, told analysts in a February conference call. “As we scale up our hardware efforts … you can definitely glimpse the future.”

It is worth adding though that, according to Nikkei, the Google Pixel series still only has 0.5 percent market share. However, that is growing and the company plans to ship as many as 10 million phones, a source said.

“Although Google’s smartphone shipments are still small, it’s one of the clients that still has healthy volume growth,” another source told Nikkei. “It offers better prices for suppliers too.”

The 5G model is currently being tested in China. However, it’s worth noting that because of U.S. tariffs on China, Google intends to produce all phones outside of China before shipping to the U.S.

Source: Nikkei Asian Review