5G smartphones are already taking over in 2019: we've already seen big-name phones like the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, the Huawei Mate X, and the LG V50 ThinQ show off their 5G capabilities, and plenty more are on the way.

Bear in mind that Qualcomm President Christiano Amon, has said that "every Android vendor is working of 5G right now", plus all the 5G tech we saw at CES 2019 and MWC 2019 – and it's clear that by the end of 2019, 5G will have well and truly arrived on the scene.


The transition to new fifth-generation cellular networks — known as 5G for short — will also affect many other kinds of devices, including industrial robots, security cameras, drones and cars that send traffic data to one another. This new era will leap ahead of current wireless technology, known as 4G, by offering mobile internet speeds that will let people download entire movies within seconds and most likely bring big changes to video games, sports and shopping.
Officials in the United States and China see 5G networks as a competitive edge. The faster networks could help spread the use of artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies.
Expect to hear more about 5G soon at events like the MWC Barcelona (formerly the Mobile World Congress) in February in Spain. Wireless service providers including AT&T and Verizon are already talking up 5G. And device makers are previewing gadgets that will work with the technology.

Samsung recently demonstrated prototypes of 5G smartphones that are expected to operate on both Verizon and AT&T networks. Many other manufacturers are racing to follow suit, though Apple is not expected in the initial 5G wave. Analysts predict that iPhones with the new technology won’t arrive until 2020. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.
Here’s what you need to know.

WHAT EXACTLY IS 5G?
Strictly speaking, 5G is a set of technical ground rules that define the workings of a cellular network, including the radio frequencies used and how various components like computer chips and antennas handle radio signals and exchange data.
Since the first cellphones were demonstrated in the 1970s, engineers from multiple companies have convened to agree on new sets of specifications for cellular networks, which are designated a new technology generation every decade or so. To get the benefits of 5G, users will have to buy new phones, while carriers will need to install new transmission equipment to offer the faster service.

HOW FAST WILL 5G BE?
The answer depends on where you live, which wireless services you use and when you decide to take the 5G plunge.
Qualcomm, the wireless chip maker, said it had demonstrated peak 5G download speeds of 4.5 gigabits a second, but predicts initial median speeds of about 1.4 gigabits. That translates to roughly 20 times faster than the current 4G experience.
The 5G speeds will be particularly noticeable in higher-quality streaming video. And downloading a typical movie at the median speeds cited by Qualcomm would take 17 seconds with 5G, compared with six minutes for 4G.
Rather than remembering to download a season of a favorite TV show before heading to the airport, for example, you could do it while in line to board a plane, said Justin Denison, a Samsung senior vice president.

IS THAT THE ONLY SPEED THAT MATTERS?
No. There’s another kind of speed, a lag known as latency, that may become even more important with 5G.
Issue a command now on a smartphone — like starting a web search — and the response isn’t exactly immediate. A lag of 50 to several hundred milliseconds is common, partly because signals often must pass between different carrier switching centers; 5G, which uses newer networking technology, was designed to reduce latency down to a few milliseconds. It was also designed to deliver signals more reliably than earlier cellular networks, which today frequently drop bits of data that aren’t essential for tasks like watching movies on a phone.
That improvement could bring many benefits, notably in fields such as virtual reality. The highest-quality VR applications now typically require bulky headsets that are connected by wire to nearby personal computers that generate 3-D images. With 5G, that would be off-loaded wirelessly to other machines, freeing users to move and making it easier to develop goggles the size of eyeglasses, said Cristiano Amon, president of Qualcomm’s semiconductor business.
In the related field of augmented reality, people could point a smartphone camera at a football game and see both live video on the display and superimposed player statistics or other data, said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.
And 5G’s impact extends to medicine and other fields that increasingly rely on high-speed connections.
“If you talk about remote surgery or connected cars, you don’t want latency times to be too long,” said Fredrik Jejdling, an executive vice president at Ericsson, a maker of cellular equipment.

Sprint's prospective merger partner, T-Mobile, has stressed a nationwide 5G launch in 2020, but said it was installing gear in 30 cities that would be ready when 5G smartphones appeared in 2019.
Countries expected to follow the United States with 2019 rollouts of 5G include Britain, Germany, Switzerland, China, South Korea and Australia, according to a timetable compiled by Qualcomm.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/31/technology/personaltech/5g-what-you-need-to-know.html
https://www.t3.com/news/best-5g-phones

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