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Sprint and Intel say they’ll offer 5G PCs next year

Sprint and Intel say they’ll offer 5G PCs next year

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Acer and Asus sign on, too

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5G PCs are supposedly coming soon, and today we’re learning a bit more about where you’ll be able to get them. In a joint announcement, Sprint said today that it’ll be offering 5G PCs next year powered by Intel’s chips.

Two additional companies also said today that they’ll be building Intel-powered 5G PCs: Acer and Asus. That brings the total number of companies — which already includes Microsoft, Dell, HP, and Lenovo — up to six. Those companies are all supposed to release 5G laptops and 2-in-1s at some point next year.

This is all good news for Intel, which has struggled to compete with Qualcomm in the connected device space. If Intel can position itself as the center of the coming wave of connected PCs — and there’s no guaranteeing it will, since Qualcomm has 4G PCs in the works — it’ll help to ensure the continued relevance of its Core chips.

That all said, the bigger question is still: what’s 5G? Is it real? Will it really be available next year? All the big carriers say they’re working on it, and many plan to begin rollouts this year (though oddly enough, Sprint is not one of them). Again, it’s not at all clear what the experience will look like or how substantially different it’ll be at first. But whatever it is appears to be coming soon.