Qualcomm has launched two new chipsets for mobile applications, the FastConnect 6900 and the FastConnect 6700. These are the first modems from Qualcomm to feature support for the Wi-Fi 6E connectivity standard that was launched recently, and these are also the first modems from the brand to feature the Bluetooth v5.2 support.

The Wi-Fi 6E is an advanced version (or you can call an extension) of the Wi-Fi 6. The Wi-Fi 6E uses a 6GHz band and it has access to an additional 1200MHz spectrum compared to the Wi-Fi 6. This spectrum is unused by legacy devices, meaning that there will be much less interference, allowing for lower latency. With the extended-spectrum, the Wi-Fi 6E has seven 160MHz channels, which is significantly higher than two 160MHz channels in the 5GHz network.

The FastConnect 6900 packs Dual Band Simultaneous (DBS) feature, where it can combine a 2×2 5GHz connection and a 2×2 6GHz connection to offer a peak speed of 3.6Gbps. The FastConnect 6700 doesn’t come with DBS support, which means it can’t use a 5GHz and a 6GHz connection simultaneously. Even though, the FastConnect 6700 offers an impressive, 2.9Gbps speed. According to Qualcomm, these chipsets will offer extremely low, 3ms, latency.

Coming to the Bluetooth v5.2 connectivity, this new standard offers LE Audio for streaming audio with a lower power consumption and LC3 codec for better sound quality, over the Bluetooth v5.1 standard. Apart from offering the benefits of the Bluetooth v5.2 connectivity, the FastConnect 6900 and the FastConnect 6700 also come with Dual Bluetooth Antenna for increased range and reliability, and aptX Adaptive and aptX Voice to offer 96Khz music and 32KHz voice call quality.

Qualcomm plans to send the FastConnect 6700 and the FastConnect 6900 modems to manufacturers, for testing and implementation purposes, later this year. One can expect to see smartphones with these modems in early 2021.