As Mobile World Congress 2025 has just started, Qualcomm has announced the X85 5G modem with up to 12.5 Gbps peak download speed, 3.7 Gbps uploads and targeting a wide range of applications from Android smartphones to PCs, FWA routers, industrial applications with Ethernet TSN, or even railways with support for FRMCS (Future Railway Mobile Communication System) in Europe.
The company also introduced the Dragonwing Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) Gen 4 Elite platform based on the Qualcomm X85 5G modem, a quad-core processor, GNSS, tri-band Wi-Fi 7, and network Edge AI coprocessor with up to 40 TOPS of NPU processing power.
Qualcomm X85 5G modem
Qualcomm X85 5G Modem-RF System specifications:
- Peak Download Speed – 12.5 Gbps (FR1 + FR2), 10.3 Gbps
- Peak Upload Speed – 3.7 Gbps
- Cellular Modem-RF – 10CC aggregation in mmWave, 6CC aggregation in 5G sub 6GHz, 400 MHz carrier aggregation (DL)
- Cellular Technology
- 5G NR TDD, 5G NR FDD, sub-6 GHz
- 4G LTE
- 3G WCDMA
- 2G GSM/EDGE
- CBRS (Citizens Broadband Radio Service)
- mmWave (via Qualcomm QTM567 module), sub-6 carrier aggregation (FDD-FDD), sub-6 carrier aggregation (TDD-TDD), sub-6 carrier aggregation (FDD-TDD)
- 5G SA (standalone), 5G NSA (non-standalone)
- FDD UL MIMO
- Switched Uplink
- 3GPP R18-ready (5G Advanced-ready)
- 6xCA sub-6 downlink carrier aggregation, 1024-QAM sub-6, FR1 (sub-6 GHz) + FR2 (mmWave) CA, 2x TDD UL MIMO
- Multi SIM – Dual SIM Dual Active (DSDA)
- 5G NR-based GNSS Location
- Supports all global 5G bands from 0.6 to 41GHz
- Performance Enhancement Technologies
- Qualcomm Smart Transmit technology
- Qualcomm 5G PowerSave, Qualcomm
- Advanced Modem-RF Software Suite
- Qualcomm RF Downlink Boost
- Qualcomm RF Uplink Optimization
- NTN Satellite Communication
- Qualcomm 5G AI Processor with dedicated tensor accelerator hardware optimized for 5G and 5G Advanced use cases
- Qualcomm AI-Powered Data Traffic Engine for better end user experience and performance
The Qualcomm X85 is an update to the Snapdragon X80 5G modem introduced almost exactly one year ago. The new X85 model seems to be suitable for a much wider range of applications, improves UL/DL slightly, but loses Snapdragon Satellite two-way messaging which was cancelled last year.
As usual, Qualcomm is not sharing a lot of public information about the X85 5G modem, but you may still find a few more details on the product page and the press release.
Dragonwing Fixed Wireless Access Gen4 Elite platform
Dragonwing FWA4 specifications:
- CPU – Quad-core processor
- Cellular modem – Qualcomm X85 5G modem described above with
- Up to 12.5 Gbps peak DL
- Up to 3.7 Gbps peak UL
- Up to 14km range with mmWave
- Dynamic multi-antenna 8Rx/6Rx/4Rx management for more robust coverage and efficient power handling
- Wi-Fi
- Generation – Wi-Fi 4, Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi 7
- Standards – 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11a, 802.11ax, 802.11be
- Spectral Bands – 6 GHz, 5 GHz, 2.4 GHz (Tri-band)
- Spatial Streams – up to 12
- Peak QAM – up to 4K QAM
- Encryption – AES-CCMP, AES-GCMP
- Security – WPA3 Enhanced Open, WPS, WPA2, WEP, TKIP, PRNG, WAPI2, WAPI1, 802.11i security, WPA3 Personal, WPA3 Enterprise, WPA3 Easy Connect
- Features – OFDMA (UL/DL), MU-MIMO (UL/DL), Simultaneous & Alternating Multi Link, Adaptive Interference Puncturing
- Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engine – Qualcomm Hexagon Processor up to 40 TOPS for LLMs, LVMs, Network traffic coordination
- Ethernet – 2x 2.5GbE, 1x 5GbE
Supported operating systems include OpenWrt and prplOS. Qualcomm also provides support for the RDK-B (Reference Design Kit for Broadband) SDK and Qualcomm AI Stack.
Qualcomm says the Dragonwing FWA Gen 4 Elite Platform is available and shipping now. Additional information (again limited) can be found on the product page and MWC2025 press release.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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