Vietnam conglomerate Vingroup’s handset subsidiary completed development of its first 5G smartphone under a collaboration with Qualcomm, hailing the move as a key step for domestic design and production capabilities.

In a translated statement, VinSmart claimed the Vsmart Aris 5G smartphone is the first made by a Vietnamese vendor, opening “opportunities for early access to world-class technology” for consumers.

Tran Minh Trung, deputy general director of VinSmart, said 5G was a “strategic project”, with the smartphone the first step in a strategy to create a “make in Vietnam” ecosystem around the technology.

“We expect Vietnamese consumers will soon have access to and use the most advanced technology in the world”.

Vsmart Aris 5G runs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765 chipset, features a “monolithic metal frame” and operates on sub-6GHz frequencies: Nguyen Phi Tuyen, director of measurement centre at the Telecommunications Department, said tests of the device showed it delivered data rates “nearly eight-times higher than 4G”.

VinSmart said a modular design platform enabled “flexible hardware design, shortening product development time” and offering compatibility with “most of the frequency bands used” globally. It added a Quantis QRNG quantum security chip developed in partnership with Swiss company ID Quantique makes the smartphone a “breakthrough” in terms of security technology by replacing algorithm-based numbering with “truly random” figures.

This offers benefits for services including “banking, personal finance” and medical data, it stated.

Last month Qualcomm opened a regional R&D and test facility in Hanoi to support its local manufacturing partners including VinSmart and Viettel, VNExpress reported.