China rolls out first 5.5G networks. Which phones are compatible?

China plans to deploy 5G-Advanced (5G-A), also known as 5.5G, in more than 300 cities by the end of 2024, according to RCRWireless, citing local Chinese media. China Mobile reported a net increase of 138 million 5G subscribers in 2023 and a 5% increase in net profit compared to the previous year.

Which phones are compatible and which are the first 5.5G cities

China Mobile has set out to release more than 20 5G-A-capable phones later this year. Among the first devices to benefit from this new technology is the OPPO Find X7 flagship series. The telco is allowing users to experience the performance of the 5.5G network for the first time with the OPPO Find X7 Ultra phone in dedicated demonstration rooms. Other flagship Android phones launching in 2024, such as the Galaxy S24 Ultra and OnePlus 12, could also be compatible with 5G-A networks.

OPPO Find X7, released in January 2024, has a MediaTek Dimensity 9300 ( 4nm ) processor, 16GB of LPDDR5x RAM and up to 1TB of UFS 4.0 storage. The phone has a 50MP Sony LYT-808 main camera, a 50MP ultrawide camera and a 64MP OmniVision OV64B periscope telephoto camera. The LTPO screen has a diagonal of 6.78 inches and a refresh rate of 120Hz. The 5000mAh battery charges quickly at 100W.

Oppo Find X7 Ultra it has a 6.82-inch LTPO AMOLED screen with 1 billion colors and a 120Hz refresh rate. It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (4nm) chipset and comes with Android 14 with ColorOS 14 interface. In terms of RAM and storage, the options are 256GB with 12GB RAM, 256GB with 16GB RAM, or 512GB with 16GB RAM. The internal memory is of UFS 4.0 type.

The main rear camera has a 50MP sensor and is accompanied by a 50MP periscope telephoto camera, another 50MP periscope telephoto camera and a 50MP ultrawide camera. The selfie camera is 32 MP. The battery is 5000 mAh with fast charging of 100W via cable and 50W wireless.

Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou are among the first cities to benefit from the new networks. 5.5G, or 5G Advanced, represents a significant evolution compared to current 5G networks, promising download speeds of up to 10Gbps and upload speeds of up to 1Gbps. This technological advance is comparable to the transition from 4G networks to 4G-Advanced or 4G LTE, offering improved speeds and reduced latency.

The reasons why we are not going straight to 6G

1. The 10-year technological cycle: The telecommunications industry follows a technological cycle of approximately 10 years for each generation of mobile networks. This cycle allows time for research and development, testing, standardization and large-scale implementation.
2. Significant investments: Each new generation of mobile networks requires significant investment in infrastructure and equipment. These costs are often too high to bear all at once, which is why a gradual transition is made.
3. Device compatibility: Not all devices are compatible with new technologies. Therefore, a transition time is required for users to update their devices.
4. Standardization: Before a new generation of mobile networks can be widely deployed, it must be standardized globally. And this process can take years.
5. Testing and research: 6G is still in the research and development stage. While it promises speeds 100 times faster than 5G and increased bandwidth, it’s still unclear what final form 6G will take until it’s standardized.

I was writing above about the similarity between 5.5G and the intermediate versions of 4G. History shows that from 2G (circa 1990) until now each generation has had intermediate improvements and evolutions:

2G

• GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), sometimes called 2.5G, was an improvement on 2G networks that allowed the use of the Internet on telephones and increased the speed to 80 Kbps download and 20 Kbps upload.
• EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution), also known as 2.75G, was another evolution of the GPRS network, with a maximum speed of up to 236 Kbps download and 59 Kbps upload.

3G

• 3.5G: Introduced HSPA (High Speed ​​Packet Access) technology, which improved data transfer speeds and enabled video streaming and video calling.
• 3.75G: Introduced HSPA+ (Evolved High Speed ​​Packet Access) technology, which further improved the data transfer speed, reaching up to 42 Mbps download.

4G

• 4G: It introduced LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology, which allowed data transfer speeds of up to 100 Mbps download and 50 Mbps upload. It has brought significant improvements in internet speed and support for services such as HD video streaming.
• 4.5G: Also known as LTE Advanced Pro, 4.5G has brought further improvements in data transfer speed, reaching up to 1 Gbps download. It also introduced technologies such as MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) and carrier aggregation, which enabled more efficient use of the frequency spectrum.

It is important to note that these “intermediate values” are not globally standardized and may vary depending on the country and the mobile operator. For example, what one operator may call “4.5G” may be different from another operator’s “4.5G” version. Also, not all mobile phones support these intermediate improvements.

In October 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Huawei presented the first 5.5G solutions. The company said then that “the presented solutions will be commercially available in the 2nd quarter of 2024”. And China Mobile is likely relying on Huawei to deploy 5G-Advanced (5G-A) technology.

Although 5.5G promises to meet the demands of industries that require super-fast speeds, near-zero latency, improved security and stable performance, the commercial launch of 5G-A networks in other parts of the world is not expected before 2025, but may be even later taking into account geopolitical tensions and the technological cold war between the US and China via Europe.

In Romania we have partial coverage with 5G networks, available especially in the big cities, each operator being at a different stage of implementing the new standard and 5.5G is not in sight any time soon for us.