Currently, Samsung is well ahead of the pack when it comes to providing lightning fast data connections for your smartphone. On its current flagships are the Exynos 9 series chipsets, with embedded Cat.16 LTE modems, designed to give users as much as 1Gbps download speeds on networks that have the proper infrastructure. Now, way ahead of schedule, Samsung brings you its new Cat.18 LTE modem.
Samsung’s new Cat.18 LTE modem promises to give you as much as 1.2Gbps download speeds. It utilizes the same 4×4 MIMO and 256-QAM digital processing. The kicker is 6x Carrier Aggregation (6CA), which means it can now aggregate up to six bandwidths from different component carriers. Samsung’s Cat.16 modem was also the first to offer 5CA. This aggregation of technologies can theoretically give you 1.2Gbps downlink – or in real-world terms, a full 720p movie downloaded over your mobile network in 15 seconds or less.
Of course, your phone’s hardware is only half of the equation here. As always, the speed of your downloads will run at the speed your network is able to provide it. And with networks bare able to keep up with putting up infrastructure, consider the Cat.18 LTE modem pretty much ahead of the curve. It may take a good while before people are able to start realizing gigabit download speeds on their mobiles.
But looking to the future, it surely looks like a bright one for mobile devices in general. Improvements in network speeds and modems will only mean less buffering time for video calls and media streaming, and more capabilities for lag-free broadcasting from mobile.
VIA: SlashGear
