Leading Chinese smartphone vendor Xiaomi has confirmed that its new Mi Mix 3 flagship product will feature 5G support, potentially making it the first company globally to offer a 5G-ready smartphone.
The news was revealed by product management director Donovan Sung ahead of Mi Mix 3’s planned launch in October and before any 5G mobile networks are up and running.
Huawei and LG have announced plans to release 5G-capable phones in the first half of next year, and other smarphone vendors have been busily developing their 5G-phone capabilities, but may not have fully 5G-capable products to bring to market until the end of next year or by 2020.
Commenting on the launch, Sung said, “we can’t wait for the official rollout of 5G next year”.
He also cited download speeds “more than 10 times faster than 4G speeds”, without going into the specifics of what specific 4G technology he was referring to.
Xiaomi announced confirmed the 5G feature through a photo showing Sung using various bands at a test facility, though a lot of the phone’s capability will depend on what networks that operators roll out globally over the next few years.
