LPDDR5 is the latest and greatest spec in terms of RAM that high-end smartphones aspire to these days. It has topped out at 16GB to date, which is most often found in super-premium or "gaming" flagships. Now, SK Hynix has officially announced that it has broken that limit with its new singular 18GB chip.
Quite apart from having the new highest capacity in the mobile DRAM industry, the OEM also asserts that it has a data-transfer rate of no less than 6,400 megabits per second (Mb/s), touted as a ~20% improvement over even the fastest LPDDR5 out there in phones today (5,500Mb/s).
This ground-breaking new spec had already shown up as a possibility prior to SK Hynix' new press release, in leaks attributed to the ROG Phone 5, the next generation of gaming flagships typically kitted out by Asus to be the most powerful in its field.
The chip-maker has happened to mention in passing that its new 18GB RAM chip will indeed debut in this device: therefore, we will know when the first phone enhanced by this module might be procured on March 10, 2021.
Then again, SK Hynix has also confirmed that the same new LPDDR5 module is now on its production lines: therefore, it might also feature in your favorite smartphone OEM's future flagships, albeit probably in the second half of 2021 at the very earliest.