There was a time when OnePlus was the only brand to provide a flagship-grade processor in the budget range. But ever since Redmi launched its Redmi K20 series, it snatched that title from OnePlus. Those were the first phones under the Redmi’s K series, and they’re also known as Mi 9T/9T Pro in Europe. Currently, the company is working on Redmi K30, which is the successor of Redmi K20, and we got some hints about the device today.
The Redmi K30 may come with a dual front camera setup, which could be housed in the display just like Samsung’s S10+. Yes, the company could launch its first smartphone with a punch-hole camera. There is no word on why the company is moving from a bezel-less display to punch-hole display but, maybe we could get the answer in the launch event by the officials.
Well, we already have a teaser of the upcoming Redmi K30 smartphone, which was shown by Redmi’s General Manager Mr Lu Weibing himself on August 2019. Reports suggest that during the Redmi 8 launch event in China, Mr Lu gave some detailed information about the Redmi K30. He also mentioned that Redmi K30 would be the Redmi’s first 5G enabled smartphone. And it will support 5G in both SA (Standalone) and NSA (Non-Standalone).
Before we proceed, you need to understand what SA and NSA really are, in case you don’t know about them.
SA (Standalone) & NSA (Non-Standalone)
Standalone is a mode of 5G NR which refers to use 5G cells for both signalling and information transfer. It also includes the new 5G Packet Core architecture instead of relying on the 4G Evolved Packet Core, which allows the deployment of 5G without LTE network. Basically, it expected to have a lower cost and better efficiency.
The non-standalone is a mode of 5G NR which refers to an option of 5G NR deployment that depends on the control plane of an existing LTE network for control functions, while 5G NR is exclusively focused on the user plane. Few operators and vendors have criticised prioritising the introduction of 5G NR NSA on the grounds that it could hinder the implementation of the standalone mode of the network.
Well, that’s too much technical information, but you just need to know that having both SA and NSA support in a smartphone will allow the device to take advantage of the latter parts of the 5G, without changing the device.
We can expect the Redmi K30 to be the cheapest 5G enabled smartphone, as we know, Redmi is known for its budget smartphones. Redmi is set to launch Redmi Note 8 Pro in India, and for that particular event, it has already sent the media invites. For now, we have limited information about K30. We cannot say when Redmi will launch Redmi K30 in India.