vivo to add 5.5G support to X Fold3 and X100 series via OTA update

Last week China Mobile announced the official launch of 5G-Advanced (aka 5.5G/5G-A) on its network. 5.5G is the next step in mobile connectivity and promises improvements to speed, latency, and stability over regular 5G. Oppo quickly announced its plans to bring 5G-Advanced to its Find X7 series and now fellow BBK Group member vivo is also set to join the ranks.

vivo X Fold3, X Fold 3 Pro and the X100 series will be among the first devices to get 5.5G later this month with an OTA update. The iQOO 12 series and iQOO Neo 9 series are also scheduled to receive 5.5G support.

vivo X Fold3 and X100 series will be among the first devices to support 5.5G connectivity

An image of a vivo X100 running on China Mobile’s 5.5G network appeared on Weibo showing download speed of 3619.19Mbps and an upload speed of 160.75Mbps. These 5.5G network speed tests are certainly impressive but they are only a fraction of the theoretical speeds supported by the standard.

vivo X100 Pro running on China Mobile's 5.5G network

5G-Advanced is rated at up to 10 Gbps downlink and 1 Gbps uplink speeds. China Mobile’s press release also mentioned millisecond latency and improved network stability.

3GPP Release 18 details, aka 5G-Advanced

5G-Advanced is still undergoing tests in China and is currently operational in a limited number of cities. China Mobile plans to roll out the network to more than 300 cities by the end of the year covering the massive metropolitan areas of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Source 1 • Source 2 (both in Chinese)