In 2019, which was considered the first year of 5G, the 5G war in the smartphone industry has started. Not long ago, Huawei, Samsung, Xiaomi and other eight major mobile phone manufacturers rushed after the excitement of 5G terminals, Tianfeng International analyst Guo Mingxi also recently Released the news of the 5G iPhone.

▲ Huawei’s first 5G commercial phone Mate 20 X(5G)

In fact, it’s not just smartphone vendors that are rushing to 5G. Digitimes quotes industry insiders as saying that the world’s three major Notebook makers Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard and Dell will launch their first 5G notebooks in the second half of this year.

In addition, it is reported that Apple is also developing a series of MacBook models supporting 5G network, which will be Apple’s first laptop supporting mobile cellular network. The news says that the design of 5G MacBook has been completed, the fastest will be in 2020. Launched in the second half.

According to Digitimes, Apple’s 5G MacBook series will use ceramic antenna boards, which can increase the notebook’s 5G reception and transmission rate by a factor of two compared to the metal antenna boards commonly used by computer manufacturers, while consuming only half of the energy. The cost of a ceramic antenna board is six times that of a metal antenna board.

And because the metal case will shield the 5G signal, if you want to reduce the barrier to 5G signal while using the metal case, the number of 5G MacBook antennas may reach 13-15, while 5G smartphones generally only need 11

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▲ MacBook pro’s antenna strip. Image from: iFixit

Other computer manufacturers are currently adopting a metal-plastic composite housing solution. In the metal case of the notebook, the user places the wrist in an L-shaped antenna board, and the plastic material separates the antenna board from the metal casing. Avoid metal shielding of 5G signals.

In the current news, higher antenna board costs and more antennas are likely to increase the price of the 5G MacBook, but this is in line with the pricing strategy of today’s Apple products.

As stated in Macrumors This should be the first time that the 5G version of the MacBook will be released, but in the past Apple has also explored the possibility of developing a MacBook that supports cellular mobile networks.

In 2011, it was reported that Apple will launch support MacBook Air for 3G networks, and even the sample console for the 2007 MacBook Pro that supports 3G wireless Internet access.

▲Image from: Flickr

But Steve Jobs added a cellular network menu to the MacBook series in 2008Show against, think this will take up too much space, and bind the customer to a specific On the operator.

A few similar rumors have been made for a long time since then, but in 2016, Apple made two patented technology, shows that Apple has not completely abandoned the idea of ​​allowing MacBooks to support mobile data network connections.

Apple recently also announced The acquisition of Intel’s smartphone modem division for $1 billion, 2,200 Intel employees will join Apple, and if Apple really plans to develop a 5G version of the MacBook, the acquisition will also bring Apple’s cellular network technology team A lot of help.

Like the 5G smartphone, Apple seems to be slower than other vendors on 5G notebooks, but if Apple can polish the application of 5G on smart terminals more maturely, it may be implemented again.

After all, although some 5G devices have appeared on the market, due to the price and 5G network coverage, the change of the 5G network will not begin until 2020.

According to Tianfeng InternationalAnalyst Guo Mingxi’s recently released report, the 2020 iPhone line will include three models, 6.7-inch and 5.4-inch OLEDs. The iPhone of the screen supports 5G networks.

In conjunction with Digitimes, the 5G version of the iPhone and MacBook may be unveiled at Apple’s fall conference next year.

In this way, 2020 may be Apple’s 5G first year.