Qualcomm launched the first ‘NR-Light’ modem

Qualcomm Technologies has introduced the world’s first NR-Light modem, aimed at making 5G more accessible to a wider range of devices while lowering costs.

The Snapdragon X35 5G Modem-RF System System fills the gap between high-speed mobile broadband devices and low-bandwidth NB-IoT devices.

This will allow manufacturers to create smaller, more cost-efficient devices with longer battery life, such as premium smartwatches, XR glasses, and industrial IoT equipment.

The Snapdragon X35 5G Modem-RF System is a 3GPP Release 17 RedCap modem that supports all global spectrum bands and is backward compatible with LTE. It features optimized RFIC and PMIC modules and also supports dual-frequency GNSS (L1+L5) for precise positioning.

Qualcomm Technologies also unveiled the Snapdragon X32 5G Modem-RF System, a modem-to-antenna package designed to lower complexity and enable more cost-efficient NR-Light devices. The Snapdragon X35 and X32 will be available for customer sampling in the first half of 2023, and commercial mobile devices using the technology are expected to hit the market by the first half of 2024.