Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 480 is the first low-end SoC that packs 5G

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Qualcomm has just announced its new Snapdragon 480 SoC, the first low-end 5G SoC -- the company teased this would happen a few months ago, but now the day is here.

The new Snapdragon 480 has a built-in X51 modem that supports mmWave and Sub-6GHz bands, as well as standalone and non-standalone deployments. In a nutshell, the Snapdragon 480 will give you 5G on virtually any 5G network in use today.

We're looking at up to 2.5Gbps download speeds on the X51 modem, with upload speeds topping out at about 660Mbps. Qualcomm is manufacturing the new Snapdragon 480 processor on the 8nm node, tacking on next-gen CPU and GPUs onto it that deliver up to twice the performance of the previous-gen Snapdragon 460.

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We should expect to see entry-level and cheaper smartphones from the likes of Chinese smartphones giants in OnePlus and Oppo to tap the new Snapdragon 480 processors in their new smartphones throughout 2021.