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This tiny dongle will change 5G connectivity forever

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TCL Linkkey IK511 5G Dongle against a blue background.
TCL
Mobile World Congress 2024
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TCL is having a busy start to 2024. First, it announced a staggering number of new smartphones and two new tablets at CES, and now it’s unveiling something else at MWC 2024 — one of the world’s first 5G dongles that takes advantage of the latest power-efficient 5G standards.

TCL Mobile’s Linkkey IK511 is a pocketable new 5G adapter that’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X35 5G Modem-RF system, which debuted last year as the first 5G modem to support the new NR-Light “RedCap” standard.

5G for everyone, everything, everywhere

TCL Linkkey IK511 5G Dongle.
TCL Linkkey IK511 TCL

RedCap is short for “reduced capability,” and while that may not sound like what you want from a 5G modem, it’s actually a good thing as it fills an important void and promises to bring 5G to a whole new class of devices.

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While Qualcomm’s flagship modem chips, like the new Snapdragon X80, are incredible powerhouses, great power comes with great energy consumption. That’s fine for something like a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. Still, not every device needs to achieve the insanely fast 5G speeds delivered by mmWave networks and new technologies like 5G Carrier Aggregation. These premium chips also don’t come cheap.

There’s more to 5G than just raw speed. A higher capacity allows more devices to stay connected in busy places, and low latency means that you get much fasters response time on all the little back-and-forth things that most of us do much more often — such as instant messaging, checking social media, and receiving notifications. Plus, 4G/LTE networks won’t be around forever.

The result is that there are whole classes of devices that need 5G connectivity, but can’t handle the power requirements of a smartphone or tablet 5G modem. Qualcomm’s X35 was initially heralded as a 5G modem chip to power the next generation of smartwatches. That will still likely be the most common use case, but as TCL’s new Linkkey IK511 proves, it’s not the only one.

Connecting the unconnected

TCL Linkkey IK512 5G dongle on a table plugged into a laptop that someone is typing on.
TCL Linkkey IK512 TCL

While pricing has yet to be announced, the Linkkey IK511 promises to deliver a more affordable way for users to move away from 4G/LTE networks and enjoy the benefits of 5G. The reduced capabilities also mean reduced costs, but for most folks, the IK511 should deliver more than enough performance for everyday use, as the RedCap standard is still capable of delivering download speeds of up to 150Mbps and upload speeds reaching 50Mbps.

To put that in perspective, a 4K UHD stream from Netflix only requires 15Mbps of bandwidth, while even the highest-0quality streaming services, like Disney+ and Apple TV+, peak at around 40Mbps.

TCL hopes its new 5G dongle will help to democratize 5G. “Together with Qualcomm Technologies, TCL will bring 5G to more customers and help to mark a new chapter in the future of connectivity and interconnected devices, to accelerate global connectivity,” said Jesse Wu, TCL’s general manager of Smart Connected Devices.

TCL Linkhub HH132 Pro on living room table beside two people sitting on a couch in the background.
TCL Linkhub HH132 Pro TCL

The Linkkey IK511 joins the more powerful Linkkey IK512, which is designed for situations that require more bandwidth. It supports 5G speeds of up to 2.46Gbps, along with the Linkhub HH132 Pro router for delivering fixed wireless access (FWA) to homes and small businesses. While TCL says the Linkkey IK512 will be available in Europe later this year, pricing and availability for the IK511 hasn’t yet been confirmed.

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Jesse Hollington
Jesse Hollington
Mobile Writer
Jesse has been a technology enthusiast for his entire life — he probably would have been born with an iPhone in his hand…
How 5G is changing journalism
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There's little doubt that 5G is starting to touch every area of our lives -- from online classrooms to 5G-powered bots supplying medication to remote citizens. It’s no surprise then that 5G is also changing the way our newsrooms work. 
Once widely available, 5G tools and the faster speeds they deliver will help journalists in at least three ways, professor John Pavlik of Rutgers University. First, he says, “5G can enable journalists working in the field to report more effectively from their digital devices, particularly with regard to high-bandwidth news gathering, such as photogrammetry, and other immersive applications for augmented reality and virtual reality (e.g., volumetric video capture), as well as high-resolution video from mobile devices.”
Second, 5G can enable news organizations to operate effectively without relying on a central, physical newsroom by supporting high-speed internet file sharing. Finally, 5G can help improve newsrooms by supporting better engagement with the public.
The best example of how 5G has made journalism more effective can be seen with the latest collaboration between The New York Times and Verizon. In 2019, the two companies came together to build a 5G Journalism Lab. Tools born out of this collaboration include environmental photogrammetry, Beam, and Eclipse.
Environmental photogrammetry
“Environmental photogrammetry involves taking thousands of still photographs and stitching them together as one large 3D model, giving readers the ability to immersively navigate the space as if they were actually there,” explains Sebastian Tomich, senior vice president and global head of advertising and marketing solutions for The New York Times.
This technology was first used in a 2020 story that toured the Los Angeles mansion where gamer conglomerate FaZe Clan lived and worked. “An article that employs environmental photogrammetry uses as much data as streaming an hourlong television show,” Marc Lavallee, head of research and development for the Times, said in a press release. “Making this kind of reading experience seamless for our readers requires cutting-edge networks like 5G.”
Beam and Eclipse 

Talking about their first proprietary photography app, Beam, Tomich said it allows Times journalists working in the field to capture and automatically upload high-resolution images to the newsroom with nothing but their smartphone and camera. 
Building upon the advances of Beam, the Eclipse app leverages Verizon 5G to expand video journalism. Eclipse can use 5G to transmit professional video files that meet The Times’s quality standards at a speed that competes with uploads of mobile phone videos, which have file sizes roughly 14 times smaller, Tomich said. It allows video journalists to get material into their editors’ hands in close to real time, rather than hours later.
“This "always on" connection facilitated by Beam and Eclipse enables deeper coordination between the newsroom and photo and video journalists in the field,” he said. “With the ability to review footage in near real time, editors can now request additional photos or videos while the journalist is still on the scene.”
Real-life applications
These tools developed by the 5G lab aren’t just ideas inside four walls. The team has already started implementing them to improve the speed and quality of journalism. 
For instance, when the team went to cover the 2020 Oscars red carpet arrivals, Verizon set up a 5G network at the event. Using Beam, a Times photographer roamed the red carpet freely, without interruption or regard for file transfer limits. “He ended up sending eight times more photos than the previous year’s photographer, with an average upload time of 2.1 seconds,” Tomich said. “With Beam, shooting IS filing.”
However, creating powerful tools isn’t always enough for effective real-world practices. Factors like awareness, availability, and access to resources play a huge role in shaping journalism. As newsrooms and 5G providers are waking up to the transformational power of 5G-powered, Pavlik suggests three ideas to better capitalize on the 5G tools available on the market.
He advises newsrooms to: 

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This year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) has once again come to a close, and we can already tell that it’s going to be another exciting year for new mobile technology.

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