Reports that Huawei has selected a supplier for large heat-dissipation sheets strongly suggest the first wave of 5G smartphones will be bulkier and consume significantly more power.
Huawei aims to be among the first companies to release a 5G smartphone, with industry speculation placing the launch around June 2019.
Sources indicate Huawei has chosen Taiwan-based Auras Technology to supply its cooling modules. While Auras declined to comment directly on the reports, chairman YS Lin noted that smartphone makers will need more capable thermal solutions to handle 5G performance demands.
To manage the extra heat generated by 5G’s higher data rates, Huawei is reportedly using relatively large 0.4 mm copper thermal sheets from Auras. Copper offers superior thermal conductivity compared with the graphite sheets commonly used today, but it is also more expensive.
The higher cost of copper thermal components is likely to be reflected in the retail price of early 5G phones. Many consumers already expect to pay a premium for first-generation 5G devices, so this added expense may be acceptable to early adopters.
Incorporating larger copper sheets will also affect device thickness. Modern smartphones are engineered to be slim, leaving very little internal space for larger components. As a result, first-generation 5G handsets will probably be thicker than current models to accommodate enhanced cooling systems and other new hardware.
Huawei’s rotating CEO Eric Xu has said the company’s first-generation 5G chips will deliver more than five times the performance of typical 4G chips, but that boost comes with a substantial power penalty—about 2.5 times the energy consumption. That trade-off will force manufacturers to choose between increasing battery capacity or dialing back performance to maintain acceptable battery life.
Huawei has an advantage in battery management: recent devices like the P20 and Mate 10 are known for long battery life, partly thanks to AI-driven optimizations handled by dedicated hardware. Those optimizations could be further refined to mitigate some of the battery impact of 5G, reducing the need for much larger batteries.
Even if battery life declines somewhat, Huawei may still outperform some competitors, giving it more flexibility in balancing power, performance, and device size. Other smartphone makers that stick closely to current 4G design constraints may face tougher trade-offs when adapting to 5G hardware requirements.
New technology generations often arrive with early challenges that need to be resolved. Early adopters may accept initial flaws, but many consumers will likely wait until both 5G devices and networks mature before upgrading.
Do you foresee any problems with first-generation 5G devices? Share your thoughts in the comments.