Have you bought a 5G phone? How has it changed your life?

Gidster

5G services are starting to emerge in some cities and the first few 5G phones are coming into the market from the likes of Samsung, OnePlus and Huawei (boo hiss  ) Have any of you guys splashed out on one yet? And, if so, what's your experience? Has it made any difference to your life yet

Bryce

I would question if the 5g phones are really even 5g currently.  I thought the specification hasn't been ratified yet and I've definitely heard in the media of some companies doing some network/display fudges to appear to be 5g when they are not.
Regards, Bryce.

John

I wont be getting one for some time.  In all honest if you can stream a video, music, and tether at a half decent speed on 4G I see no need for 5G?  Its not like you can watch multiple video streams, or have much use for large file downloads at any speed.  Even if you did there is wifi generally available for that.  Really dont see all the fuss on 5G especially with it being such a political hotbed at the moment 

ddaw215

I was waiting for the Samsung but its bigger than a note. IMO still not enough 5G to warrant being first in line with the phone. I agree with John about being able to do what I want currently. By the time 5G is better supported by the phone companies the Samsung 11G might be out and will probably be more accommodating for me size wise 

KenD

I actually received a free upgrade from my carrier when I got the Samsung Galaxy s10+, now have the 5G version and can't say it has changed my life yet. I think it will take awhile for 5G penetration. At the moment I get I've seen far greater speeds on the 4G LTE than 5G. One of the speed tests I did on 4G LTE I got 322Mbps down and 8.68Mbps up. On the 5G when I was in Melbourne a few weeks ago I did 4 speed tests and didn't get any higher than 158Mbps down and 37.5 up. Hope over time this will improve greatly, was  little disappointed.

Pooh

5G is going to take forever before it begins to make any difference. For most folk I suspect it'll be a 'little better and a little faster' than 4G. The only folks who'll get the superfast speed are those on the mm Wave frequencies with a very nearby base station.

Gigabit LTE will possibly suffice for many users if it comes widely available - the big advantage of 5G would be more bandwidth thus allowing more users.

This all said, most of us are going to be using smartphones, tablets and potentially laptops. I'd argue that 5G won't do a huge amount in terms of how we consume bandwidth as most devices can only view videos at HD (4K on a phone seems to be a massive waste of power and data IMHO).
The biggest fear I have is how the ISPs etc. will charge for all this: here in the States for example they love to nickel and dime you for really rather small amounts of data. Given that they've already announced that even just allowing you to have 5G connectivity will cost more per month, i'd hate to imagine how much per month us users would be hit if we started really using data... 

Marc

Bryce said:

I would question if the 5g phones are really even 5g currently.  I thought the specification hasn't been ratified yet and I've definitely heard in the media of some companies doing some network/display fudges to appear to be 5g when they are not.
Regards, Bryce.

Great point.  ATT introduced 5Ge, clear as mud as it not 5g but more like an aspirational 4g...

KenD

Pooh said:

5G is going to take forever before it begins to make any difference. For most folk I suspect it'll be a 'little better and a little faster' than 4G. The only folks who'll get the superfast speed are those on the mm Wave frequencies with a very nearby base station.

Very valid point. I don't believe the government here in Australia has yet released the spectrum for mm Wave to mobile carriers, I think that might be a few years off yet.

Pooh

We have a hard enough time getting 4G in the boonies here in the midwest of the United States. I can only begin to imagine how hard it would be to get any decent coverage in a country with so much empty 'space' such as Oz!

keith

Pooh said:

We have a hard enough time getting 4G in the boonies here in the midwest of the United States. I can only begin to imagine how hard it would be to get any decent coverage in a country with so much empty 'space' such as Oz!

Hmmm I think we are the same, mobile 4G in major cities 100k population or bigger 100-200 Mbps.
Rural varies dramatically from 0 to 1 or 2 Mbps.
5G will certainly help speed up slowing phone sales.