The Google Pixel 6 Pro has a new modem in the US 5G game. We took it for a weekend of testing to see how it matches up against the Samsung Galaxy S21+ and Ultra.
Google’s Pixel 6 Pro has several ground-breaking new components for the US, but the one Google least wants to talk about is its Samsung modem. After many years of using Qualcomm’s technologies to connect to 4G and 5G networks, Google seems to have switched over to Samsung to pair with its in-house Tensor processor—making the Pixel 6 Pro the only Samsung-powered 5G phone in the US. „Hey, what about Samsung phones?“ you ask. Samsung’s US phones all use Qualcomm or MediaTek processors and modems rather than Samsung’s own Exynos line. Phones outside the US more often use Exynos, including the flagship Galaxy S21 line. Here in the US, both Apple’s iPhone 13 line and Samsung’s S21 flagships use Qualcomm’s X60 modem. Connectivity is important in a connected device. If you can’t stay connected, smartphones become pretty frustrating to use. So knowing whether a new component affects connectivity is pretty important. With that in mind, we set out for a weekend and took thousands of signal samples to divine the difference between devices. We can’t eliminate every variable here. A phone’s network performance isn’t just in its modem; antennas, power amplifiers, and software all play a part. But take enough samples, and some conclusions can become clear. Mysteries of the Modem The Pixel 6 Pro’s Samsung 5123b modem is a bit shrouded in mystery. We know it’s a Samsung 5123b because the modem name is in the baseband software version number. Samsung’s page on the 5123 has very few technical details, and the details on there are misleading. For example, it says the modem has 8-carrier aggregation for the downlink and 4-carrier aggregation on the uplink. But no modem in existence right now has more than 2-carrier aggregation on sub-6 5G; that spec is really talking about LTE carriers. For US readers, the most important question is whether it supports low-to-mid-band FDD/TDD 5G carrier aggregation, which all of the carriers will use next year to extend their 5G range and performance. Qualcomm’s X60 modems have that. Google’s specs page explains there are two models of the Pixel 6 Pro, one with millimeter-wave 5G and one with only sub-6GHz 5G.
