MWC 2018

Numerous manufacturers of smartphones either launched or demonstrated prototypes of their 5G handsets at this year's Mobile World Congress. While many of the handsets shown off supported sub-6GHz 5G capabilities, they omitted mmWave functionality since most western carriers are not going to support the feature in 2019. By contrast, Sony spent this year's event showing off a prototype of a 5G smartphone that does support mmWave. And with Japan’s NTT Docomo set to to roll-out support for the technology this year, Sony has a prime opportunity to be one of the first 5G mmWave phone vendors in their home market. Like other mmWave-capable devices shown off at the show, Sony’s prototype 5G smartphone is based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X50 modem, which for technical reasons has...