Qualcomm has announced what is claims is the world’s first 5G NR-Light modem-RF system.

NR-Light, a new class of 5G, fills the gap in between high-speed mobile broadband devices and low-bandwidth NB-IoT devices.

NR-Light devices, powered by Snapdragon X35, can be smaller and more cost-efficient, and provide longer battery life than traditional mobile broadband devices.

Snapdragon X35 is a device platform that bridges the complexity and capability gap between the extremes in 5G and addresses the need for mid-tier use cases. This lower cost option provides device makers with a long-term migration path to replace LTE Cat 4+ devices, increasing 5G adoption and allowing for faster transition to a unified 5G network.

In addition to Snapdragon X35, Qualcomm also announced the Snapdragon X32 5G modem-RF system, a modem-to-antenna offering built to lower complexity and fuel cost-efficient NR-Light devices.

“Snapdragon X35 brings together key 5G breakthroughs expected from the world’s leading wireless innovator,” said Durga Malladi, senior vice president at Qualcomm. “The world’s first 5G NR-Light modem features a cost-effective, streamlined design with leading power efficiency, optimised thermal and reduced footprint. Snapdragon X35 is poised to power the next wave of connected intelligent edge devices and empower a wide spectrum of uses. We look forward to working with industry leaders to unleash what’s possible with a unified 5G platform.”

Snapdragon X35 is a 3GPP Release 17 RedCap modem with optimised RFIC and PMIC modules. It offers OEMs 5G capabilities to create devices for more use cases. The flexible, streamlined architecture and high-level modem-RF integration deliver power and thermal efficiency while enabling a small form factor design tailored to fit in compact devices.

Snapdragon X35 brings a mix of capabilities in data rates, power consumption, complexity and reduced footprint needed to enable use cases such as entry-level industrial IoT devices, mass tier fixed wireless access consumer premise equipment, mass tier connected PCs, and first-generation 5G consumer IoT devices such as direct-to-cloud glasses and premium wearables.

With support for LTE and 5G NR-Light, Snapdragon X35 is backwards compatible and future-proof enabling OEMs to develop devices that coexist with a wide range of 4G and 5G device classes helping scale 5G NR-Light services.

Snapdragon X35 is equipped with modem-RF technologies aimed to reduce power consumption, enhance 5G coverage, lower latency, increase battery life, and improve uplink speeds. In addition, it supports dual-frequency GNSS (L1+L5) to offer precise positioning suited to enable industrial use cases and applications. With its global RF-band support, X35 supports all spectrum bands within sub-6GHz, FDD and TDD, to satisfy the needs of various markets.

Customer sampling of Snapdragon X35 and X32 are expected to begin in the first half of 2023 and commercial mobile devices are expected to be launched by the first half of 2024.