After Apple acquired Intel’s modem business, Intel announced its plans to team up with MediaTek for developing 5G modems for laptops back in November of 2019. Thanks to the joint efforts, the companies have now revealed MediaTek’s T700 5G modem, which will power 5G capabilities in Intel’s laptops.
MediaTek’s T700 5G modem has completed 5G standalone (SA) calls in real-world test scenarios. Meanwhile, Intel says it has progressed with its efforts on “system integration, validation and developing platform optimizations”, and has been readying co-engineering support for OEM partners.
MediaTek claims that its modem is ‘highly power-efficient’. Furthermore, the modem supports NSA and SA sub-6GHz 5G network architectures. According to DigiTimes, the company’s mmWave offering will come in the second half of 2021.
While we have already seen laptops with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X55 5G modem like the Dell Latitude 9510 and HP Elite Dragonfly G2, it will be interesting to see how the combination of Intel CPU and MediaTek’s modems would impact the 5G performance and battery life.
“Our partnership with Intel is a natural extension of our growing 5G mobile business, and is an incredible market opportunity for MediaTek to move into the PC market,” said MediaTek President Joe Chen. “With Intel’s deep expertise in the PC space and our groundbreaking 5G modem technology, we will redefine the laptop experience and bring consumers the best 5G experiences.”
Intel’s Vice President and General Manager of Mobile Client Platforms Chris Walker says that the company will start customer sampling later this quarter. We could expect OEMs to launch the first laptops to offer MediaTek’s T700 5G modem in early 2021.
