Huawei is looking to debut its first smartphone with 5G support in the second half of 2019, powered by chipsets from its HiSilicon arm.

The company announced 5G customer premises equipment (CPE) at Mobile World Congress in February to support initial deployments in the Fixed Wireless Access markets. Comments made at its annual analyst event revealed this will be joined by mobile Wi-Fi devices in the second quarter of 2019, and smartphones in H2.

While it was mooted a second half launch would fit with its release schedule for Mate-branded devices, it is possible the 5G device will be a separate unit. Indeed, it is not clear if the device will see a full commercial launch, or be available in smaller batches to support operators early 5G deployments.

With many operators looking to enhanced mobile broadband services as an early market for 5G, it was suggested the device will support “retina experience” video at 16K resolution. This would enable VR and AR applications with processing in the cloud.

Availability of smartphones has been an important issue for the launch of early mobile 5G services. AT&T has said it is looking to commercially launch 5G connectivity later this year, but using a dedicated “puck” device.