Ah, the dawn of the 5G era.
South Korea became the world’s first country to roll out nationwide 5G networks on Wednesday, beating the US of A by a matter of hours. Both countries had planned to trump one another by bringing forward their original Friday release date, but it looks like South Korea just managed to nick it by releasing the network in a limited capacity—5G was only made available for a handful of celebrities, in what the US is deeming a publicity stunt.
Three South Korean carriers – SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus – launched 5G services at 11pm local time on Wednesday for 6 hand picked celebrities that represent South Korea. Using K-pop to trump Uncle Sam? Brilliant!
“SK Telecom [has] announced that it has activated 5G services for six celebrities representing Korea as of 11pm 3 April 2019,”
SK Telecom
South Korea has a 95 percent rate of smartphone ownership, higher than that of any other developed economy. That being said, it makes sense that the country is the first to introduce nationwide coverage for 5G networks. Ordinary consumers in South Korea will be able to connect to 5G services from today onwards – the original launch day – as Samsung begins sales of the Galaxy S10 5G, the world’s first available smartphone with 5G technology built in.
News of the Galaxy S10 5G may be a little bit disheartening for those who have purchased the recently launched S10 or S10+ but while the phone may carry the same S10 moniker, the S10 5G seems like a completely different phone. For starters, the display is a whopping 6.7 inches, which makes it bigger than the Galaxy S10+. There is also the latest UFS 3.0 storage which is reportedly twice as fast as the 3 year old UFS 2.1 storage on the current S10 line of phones. On top of that, the battery on the S10 5G is massive at 4500 mAh. It even charges at 25W.
The differences don’t end there. The Galaxy S10 5G sports an additional camera to the S10+ with the introduction of a ToF lens, similar to the one found in Huawei’s P30 pro. ToF is looking like its going to be a game changer too, with Apple reportedly going to introduce it as one of its main new features in the iPhone 11. In terms of pricing, 5G was never going to be cheap and given that it comes with better hardware, it’s probably going to cost quite a bit of moolah.
So four camera’s, next generation storage and a massive battery to boot. The next generation of smartphones are already set to be game changers. With Apple not planning to release a 5G model until 2020, this is the opportune moment for Android powered devices to show iPhone users exactly what they’re missing out on.
No news on whether or not it’ll even be coming to Malaysia but we’ll be sure to keep you updated should any news of a release date pop up.
