Realme X50 will be the company's first 5G smartphone to launch next year, as confirmed by Realme China CMO Xu Qi Chase. The smartphone, which will go official in China very soon, will feature dual punch-hole display and dual model 5G support. Notably, this phone may even reach the Indian market as Realme is aiming to become the first brand to bring a 5G phone to India, irrespective whether the network support or not. The Realme X50 5G phone will go official sometime in China next year, followed by the launch in other countries after which it will reach the Indian market. For now, we're not sure which chipset the Realme X50 is going to use, but it will most likely be a Qualcomm flagship or upper mid-range one.
Realme X50 Officially Teased: What You Need to Know
After stirring the Indian market, Realme is now aiming to take on the giants like Huawei, Xiaomi and other brands in the world's largest smartphone market China. With the Realme X50, the company is aiming to enter the 5G market as well. Smartphone brands like Xiaomi, OnePlus, Vivo and Samsung are already providing 5G phones in various countries, excluding India. Realme X50 will be the company's first 5G phone to launch.
Realme CMO also posted a teaser image of the Realme X50 on Chinese microblogging portal Weibo. The teaser confirms the phone will have a dual punch-hole display and dual model 5G support (SA/NSA).
As noted, Realme did not confirm which chipset it's going to use on the Realme X50, but most likely, it will be Qualcomm's unannounced upper mid-range or flagship chipset for 2020. In addition, the Realme X50 will take on the Redmi K30 as well in China. Xiaomi' sub-brand Redmi also confirmed that it would be launching the Redmi K30 5G smartphone in China next month. Realme X50's launch date is not known right now.
When Will 5G Smartphones Reach the Indian Market?
5G in India is the biggest question right now and we believe that the telecom operators will not launch a 5G network in India even in the first half of 2017. We are already at the end of 2019 and there's no date on 5G spectrum auction as well. OnePlus, Xiaomi, Huawei, Vivo and Samsung have already launched 5G smartphones in various markets, but none of them reached the Indian market and there's no surprise whatsoever.
Notably, telecom operators in the country are reeling right now thanks to the Supreme Court's decision against them on the AGR. Vodafone Idea posted over Rs 50,000 crore quarterly losses a few weeks ago for the September quarter and Bharti Airtel posted over Rs 20,000 crore losses. In the current scenario, we're not expecting the telcos to take part in the spectrum auction, nor the government going to conduct an auction in such a situation. On the flip side, state-run BSNL will be launching 4G services to the customers in the first half of 2020, so it may bring 5G services sometime in 2020. Smartphone brands may launch 5G phones in India next year by saying they will be futureproof, but the citizens will not be able to use them until the network launch happens.