OPPO Will Embed Li-Fi Technology, Claimed To Be Faster Than Wi-Fi

Illustration (Image Credit: LetsGoDigital)

JAKARTA - For more than a decade, Wi-Fi has become the standard on smartphones and now, as mobile technology has developed, it requires a more stable connection. However, it looks like Oppo is thinking about a faster standard.

Quoting Android Authority, Wednesday, August 12, this was seen when the company filed a new patent. The patent is known to have been issued in China detailing the design of an Oppo phone with Li-Fi connectivity. Unlike Wi-Fi, the Li-Fi module is quite visible at the top outside of the phone.

It is known, Li-Fi is a data transmission technology similar to Wi-Fi, using LED lights as the medium. And Oppo is taking the lead by patenting its first smartphone that features this technology.

The advantages of this Li-Fi technology, among others, are claimed to be much faster than Wi-Fi. It is capable of transmitting at 100Mbps to 10Gbps. Meanwhile, the occupancy of the Wi-Fi frequency spectrum can increase every day because it is the only radio wave medium other than LTE.

Li-Fi can be used to meet the growing demand for wireless data as it offers much higher capacity for data transmission. This technology is also considered more energy efficient because it uses LED lights for data transmission.

However, Li-Fi is not without its shortcomings, one of the biggest is its reliability in lamps, especially LED lamps. This means a dark room without an LED light source will be cut off from the Internet. Since light cannot penetrate walls, cell phones will have limited reach and of course can be a nuisance to some people.

The patent was published on July 31, 2020 and includes 24 product images, combined with a brief description showing that this smartphone is suitable for Li-Fi communication. Unfortunately, it is not certain when OPPO will launch a cellphone with this technology.

For your information, Li-Fi technology is nothing new. In 2012, a developer demonstrated it, but it was never adopted as a technology in mobile phones. But if OPPO embeds it, it is likely that more smartphone manufacturers will follow this.