Samsung supplies LPDDR5X to China's Nubia 'AI agent phone' in multi-vendor setup with CXMT

Samsung Electronics will supply mobile DRAM and flash memory for the Nubia NaviX Ultra, the world's first AI-based smartphone co-developed by Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE and Chinese IT company ByteDance.

China's CXMT will also supply mobile DRAM for the device, creating a multi-vendor arrangement. Chinese flagship smartphones have long relied heavily on Korean-made memory chips, but CXMT has been rapidly closing the technology gap and is now breaking into the supply chains of top-tier products.

According to industry sources Monday, Samsung Electronics is supplying LPDDR5X mobile DRAM and flash memory for the NaviX Ultra. LPDDR5X is one generation behind LPDDR6 — Samsung's latest mobile DRAM slated for mass production in the second half of this year — and is currently the high-performance mobile DRAM most widely used in smartphones.

Nubia, the smartphone brand owned by ZTE, stated on Weibo that "Samsung Semiconductor is handling the top-speed 'dual memory.'" Samsung Electronics Semiconductor also said it had configured "both RAM and flash memory at the highest specifications."

The smartphone will feature not only Samsung Electronics' LPDDR5X but also CXMT's LPDDR5X. CXMT began mass-producing LPDDR5X in May last year, but at the time its maximum data transfer speed stood at around 8.533Gbps to 9.6Gbps — a notable gap behind Samsung Electronics and SK hynix products.

In just over a year, however, CXMT pushed its maximum data transfer speed up to 10.667Gbps. In terms of transfer speed alone, that puts it in effect on par with the top 10.7Gbps-class LPDDR5X offered by Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.

The competitiveness of mobile DRAM depends on more than data transfer speed, however — power efficiency, heat generation and yield rates all factor in. Analysts caution that similar speeds alone do not mean CXMT has reached the same overall technology level as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.

For that reason, Chinese smartphone makers have until now used CXMT memory in mid- to low-end models while sticking with Korean-made memory for their flagship devices, where the technology gap has been significant.

Recently, however, flagship smartphones have also begun adopting a multi-vendor approach, combining CXMT and Korean memory. Xiaomi is also reported to be equipping its next-generation foldable smartphone with the latest LPDDR6 from both SK hynix and CXMT. Particularly notable is that CXMT announced official mass production of LPDDR6 ahead of both Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, signaling that it is now entering in earnest the technology race the two Korean chipmakers have long dominated.

"Because CXMT cannot use EUV lithography equipment, it faces a critical weakness — higher costs and lower yields even when making the same product — so it won't be able to compete with Korean companies right away," an industry official said. "Chinese smartphone makers say they are using CXMT memory, but it appears to remain largely symbolic, with CXMT chips going into domestically sold models while Korean memory is used for export models."

The official added, "That said, if CXMT keeps expanding supply backed by Chinese government subsidies, its yields will improve. As we saw in the LCD industry, China's technology capabilities can surge rapidly, so it should not be underestimated."