List of flagship mobile chips with built-in 5G

Whether you like it or not, we are entering the inevitable age of 5G. It's the reason chipmakers have released or keeps on releasing SoC solutions with built-in 5G.

File photo: A phone with built-in 5G being tested in the Philippines

One good advantage of having an SoC with built-in 5G is you won't need a separate 5G modem anymore to enjoy 5G. Also, mobile phone makers can make use of the saved space from not having a separate 5G modem for installing other components on the phone or making it slimmer.

Anyway, going back to the topic, in no particular order, here are the list of flagship chips in 2020 with built-in 5G:

Kirin 990 SoC

1. Kirin 990 5G - Announced in September 2019, the Kirin 990 5G is still Huawei's most powerful 5G chip yet.

It is built using the 7nm+ EUV process with 2x Cortex-A76 power cores clocked at 2.86GHz, 2x Cortex-A76 middle core clokced at 2.36GHz, and 4x Cortex-A55 efficiency cores clocked at 1.95GHz with a total of 10.3 billion transistors. It comes with Mali-G76 MP16 GPU, Triple NPU (2x Big-Core + Tiny-Core), and Balong 5000 5G modem with NSA/SA (Non-stand-alone and stand-alone) 5G with up to 2.3 Gbps download and 1.25 Gbps upload speeds.

MediaTek Dimensity 1000 5G SoC

3. MediaTek Dimensity 1000 5G - MediaTek's Dimensity 1000 5G is built under the 7nm process. The Dimensity 1000 5G has 8 cores (4x Cortex-A77 power cores at 2.6GHz and 4x Cortex-A55 efficiency cores clocked at 2.0GHz) and Mali-G77 MC9 GPU. The Dimensity 1000 5G supports dual 5G SIM support. It boasts speeds of up to 4.7 Gbps for downloads and up to 2.5Gbps for uploads over 5G frequencies below 6GHz.

UNISOC T7520 SoC

4. UNISOC T7520 - UNISOC's most powerful chip yet is the T7520. The T7520 is the first chip built under the 6nm EUV process. It uses 4x ARM Cortex-A76s power cores and 4x Cortex-A55 efficiency cores paired with the ARM Mali-G57 GPU

It also has its own NPU for handling AI tasks and a 5G modem that supports 5G NR TDD+FDD carrier aggregation, uplink and downlink decoupling and can enhance coverage by more than 100 percent, sub-6GHz band support, NSA/SA dual-mode networking, and 2G through 5G networks.

That's it! Did we miss anything? please let us know in the comments below.