While 4G networking has ruled the roost for the best part of a decade, 5G phones are finally making its debut in Britain, promising to deliver significantly faster data speeds and to allow for far more impressive features on portable devices.
Of course, the rollout of 5G will take a little while to gain momentum, but if you are lucky enough to live in an area which has received coverage as part of the initial push, you might be wondering which smartphones actually support this level of connectivity. Here is a quick rundown of the first 5G phones to consider buying if you want to become an early adopter.
Samsung Galaxy S10 5G
As the name suggests, this is the same as Samsung’s standard S10 handset, albeit with a 5G compatible antenna included inside. That means that you get a 6.7 inch display, an eight-core processor with 8GB of RAM and a beefy 4500mAh battery to keep all this ticking over.
Getting gadget insurance to protect the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G is a must, since it has an up-front price of around £1000 and will, therefore, be hugely expensive to repair or replace if it is not properly covered by a mobile phone insurance policy.
Oppo Reno 5G
Coming from a lesser known brand than the Galaxy S10, the Reno 5G is nevertheless a technically impressive device which boasts a 6.6 inch screen, a cutting edge chipset and an impressive array of cameras.
There are a total of three lenses on the rear, with a 48 megapixel main camera complemented by 8 and 13 megapixel secondary units. The phone can take advantage of artificial intelligence to improve the look of images that are captured in even the most challenging conditions, so it should give the best of its rivals a run for their money in terms of photographic fidelity and utility.
OnePlus 7 Pro 5G
Packing a whopping 256GB of storage space, an impressive display, a super slim profile and a trio of cameras for competitive image and video capture, the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G is every bit as exciting as its rivals.
OnePlus has gained a reputation for producing high quality handsets over the past few years and its first 5G-ready option is definitely in the same camp as its predecessors. It will also benefit from the profile boost of being amongst the few manufacturers to offer 5G phones in the UK in 2019.
Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G
The name of this smartphone may be a little hard to pronounce, but it has plenty to offer anyone looking to jump on the 5G bandwagon sooner rather than later. With a 6.4 inch AMOLED display, it is actually a little more compact than its competitors, although this is, of course, a relative term in an age when most flagship devices push north of 6 inches in the screen department.
Boasting download speeds of up to 2Gbps, at least in theory, the Mi Mix 3 5G will be ready for advanced augmented reality and video conferencing features right out of the box. Whether these will be mainstream selling points or mere curios remains to be seen.
Indeed the entire 5G rollout is predicated on an assumed demand for faster connection speeds, when in reality most people will find that 4G is more than enough to fulfil their network needs at present. As such, it will be interesting to see how the market responds to these new devices and the services they support.