Honor’s new phone will be equipped with satellite communication, with smaller antennas for a better experience.

Honor's Upcoming Smartphone Set to Feature Satellite Communication and Sleeker Antennas for Optimal Performance

【Mobile China News】In today’s development of smartphones, satellite communication has become a new demand for many users, which has also become a major factor in the attention of Huawei flagship products in the market. Apart from Huawei, there are currently few manufacturers launching satellite communication products, so who will be the next brand? According to the latest news, Honor will become another brand to launch satellite communication functionality after Huawei.

On November 10th, at the Satellite Mobile Communications Industry Development Forum, Li Kun, the general manager of Honor Terminal Co., Ltd. flagship smartphones, gave a keynote speech on the “Application Prospects and Challenges of Satellite Communication on Mobile Phones”. In the speech, Li Kun revealed that the new Honor phone will be equipped with satellite communication, and this new phone is likely to be the Honor Magic 6 series.

In his speech, Li Kun stated that smartphones directly connected to satellites face three major challenges, namely antenna miniaturization, power consumption and heat dissipation, and stability of the user experience. Regarding these three challenges, Li Kun shared Honor’s solutions. Firstly, for the antenna issue, Honor adopts self-developed antenna design and significantly improves antenna performance through software and hardware tuning, with the goal of achieving a professional terminal-like satellite communication experience.

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As for power consumption and heat dissipation, Li Kun proposed Honor’s improvement plan: self-developed low-power consumption design to achieve similar power consumption levels for satellite and cellular networks; self-developed Frost Engine liquid cooling system to solve the issue of satellite communication heat generation and significantly improve call duration; self-developed low-power scenarios to ensure emergency communications under low battery satellite conditions; and chip and peripheral circuit miniaturization to reduce the motherboard area by approximately 30%. Li Kun also mentioned that continuous miniaturization of chips and peripheral circuits and continuous reduction of power consumption will be the ongoing trend in satellite design to adapt to various form factor products.

In order to ensure the stability of satellite communication experience, on the one hand, Honor designs test cases and indicators from the perspective of users’ journey of using satellite communication, including network searching and call angle, duration of multi-scene network searches, call success rate and long-term testing, and success rate of sending and receiving messages and message delay; on the other hand, it conducts in-field testing to verify signal strength and stability, as well as network scanning tests. Furthermore, it conducts specialized outdoor field testing such as driving, fishing, and hiking to further guarantee users’ satellite communication experience.

Satellite communication is not a new thing, but it has recently made its way to smartphones. There are rumors that Huawei has exclusive rights to satellite communication technology. However, the latest news suggests that Honor has become the first to implement Qualcomm’s satellite communication technology. It is a new technology solution that is smaller, consumes less power, and provides a better experience. Honor has also shared this technology with the industry. Today, CMO of Honor Terminal in China, Jiang Hairong, posted on Weibo, saying, “We can’t say ‘the most,’ but we can say ‘even more’ compact, ‘even more’ stable, ‘even more’ power-saving. The experience is definitely beyond everyone’s expectations. Rest assured!” Judging from the three “even mores,” it can be speculated that Honor’s satellite communication technology will likely bring the industry’s strongest performance.

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