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The ZTE Gigabit Phone offers the promise of 1Gbps download speeds

ZTE has announced plans to release the Gigabit Phone, which will include hardware that could offer download speeds close to 1Gbps.
By
February 26, 2017

As part of ZTE’s announcements during this week’s 2017 Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain, the company has officially revealed its plans to launch what it is calling the Gigabit Phone. The company says that it has developed hardware that will allow the phone to download data at speeds at or near 1Gbps on cellular networks.

ZTE CEO Lixin Cheng talks growth, the future of 5G and more at CES 2017
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The company claims that its own Pre5G Giga+ MBB technology, which will be used in the Gigabit Phone, is “three times as powerful at improving data processing capability in the current network”. Combined with the use of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 processor and its X16 modem, the phone will be able to achieve these download speeds with the support of downlink 256-QAM through triple-carrier modulation convergence. ZTE says this allows for data processing that is six times greater than through the use of single-carrier modulation.

Users can expect to access features like 360-degree panoramic VR video and 'unlimited' cloud storage
ZTE is already hyping up the possibilities of having a phone that can download data at the ultra-fast 1Gbps speeds. It says users can expect to access features like 360-degree panoramic VR video, “unlimited” cloud storage and instant app access without the need to download or install apps on a device. Obviously, these kinds of download speeds will almost certainly be limited by your local cell phone tower and your cellular network, so owners should not expect to see speeds close to 1Gbps in the real world, or at least not for a while.

Unfortunately, ZTE hasn’t given us any other details about the Gigabit Phone, nor have they released any photos of the upcoming device. It is just a concept phone, after all, so the design isn’t really the thing that matters; the technology on the inside is the exciting part.

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