Even if you live in a major city like Sydney or Melbourne, you won’t find 5G everywhere. Postpaid customers on Telstra’s cheapest ‘Small’ data plan have to pay an extra $10/month for 5G access but Telstra customers on Medium, Large and Extra large plans get it for free. After years of buzz, 5G is finally on its way. It’s not nearly as fast as the 2Gbps-plus speeds that mmWave networks have reached—T-Mobile says it can reach speeds of 450Mbps—and there are a lot of unknowns, most notably how it scales and how much of the nation will be covered. For most of us, 5G networks mean faster download speeds and smoother streaming of online content, which are handy for streaming movies and heavier tasks like gaming – one for the future. ABN 14 001 592 650. Take the S20 Plus and Ultra, which are able to connect with both AT&T's more extensive low-band coverage and its higher speed 5G Plus service. NY 10036. And while the Galaxy S20 Ultra costs an eye-popping $1,399, both the S20 ($999) and S20 Plus ($1,199) cost less than last year's 5G phones from Samsung. Most major cities in US support connectivity, but if you don’t reside in one of these spots, its worth checking with your carrier. mmWave is also very finicky, has trouble penetrating walls and thick glass, and needs a straight line of sight, so if you’re walking away from a tower you might lost service. Some analysts expect every new iPhone coming from Apple this fall to feature 5G. Sort of. 5G connectivity is included on all Optus plans. It's the Pentium 3. All three major carriers now have some sort of nationwide sub-6 5G network. ", T-Mobile includes 5G coverage as part of its $70-a-month Magenta unlimited plan. 3. That's going to change in a big way this fall when multiple versions of the iPhone 12 will likely work with 5G. That reach figures to continue expanding throughout the year, as carriers cover more area with their 5G networks. But that's over the next 10 years, with broad adoption probably starting in 2021. Apple has yet to come out with 5G-compatible iPhones. We're following all the 5G announcements on our Race to 5G page. according to me you shouldn’t right now and buy a rather mid range but good 4G phone according to the conditions 5 G will be there in minimum 2 years and a max of 4 years yes, people will shift on 5G but … Speaking of infrastructure, there’s no bigger factor in buying (or not buying) a 5G phone than what your wireless carrier is doing in your own backyard. HTC, Inseego, and Netgear all have 5G hotspots out on the market. For now, you have to choose one or the other on a 5G device. Verizon phones … Last year’s Oppo Reno 5G was our pick for the best value 5G handset available in Australia and this year’s crop arguably improve on that aspect of things: Oppo currently offers a total of five 5G devices: Motorola only recently graduated into the 5G smartphone arena with the foldable Motorola Razr 5G and the slightly more-modest Moto G 5G Plus and Motorola Edge 5G. If the phone you're after happens to have 5G, that's a nice bonus, but in the short term, we don't think 5G … But coverage is inconsistent, given Verizon’s choice of ultra-fast millimetre wave technology, which provides limited reach. He's the head of our Fastest Mobile Networks project, one of the hosts of the daily PCMag Live Web show and speaks frequently in mass media on cell-phone-related issues. All rights reserved. For obvious reasons, the new iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro are the way to go if you're bought into the iOS ecosystem and want a 5G phone. Here's why. 5G is definitely faster than 4G LTE, even on 5G networks that are putting the initial focus on coverage rather than speed. And it’s faster too. On the device side of things, 5G connectivity has also shifted from a premium optional extra to something you should expect in your next handset. And the good news is speeds only going to get faster. As opposed to Telstra’s mobile-centric approach, Optus’ pitch for 5G put fixed home wireless front and center. Samsung put 5G in every Galaxy S20 series phone bringing faster speeds, a 120Hz display, and some of the best cameras ever put in a phone. 5G has huge potential, and over the next 10 years its capabilities will greatly outstrip anything that was possible with 4G. But while many are eager for next-level speeds, there are a few things to consider before splashing the cash and ditching your perfectly functional 4G phone for now. All that's going to change over time, of course, but if you're expecting fast 5G speeds all the time without interruption, you'd best wait for carriers to improve their networks. This 5G now covers hundreds of millions of Americans. (And it could be even longer, depending on the coronavirus outbreak, which has the potential to disrupt Apple's production schedule in Asia and push back the iPhone 12's launch.) (In Sprint's case, that's the $80-a-month Unlimited Premium tier, while AT&T includes 5G coverage with its $85 Unlimited Elite and $75 Unlimited Extra offerings.). When you hear about 5G’s insane multi-gigabit speeds, mmWave is what people are talking about. By the time coverage is better, there will be better phones. Expectations are that it will begin sometime in 2020, though. Another key difference worth noting is that Optus insists that all plans, regardless of who they're built for, will come with 5G-included. But T-Mobile says it will reach 200 million people, so it will definitely be the widest 5G coverage map so far. While Australians have spent most of the year indoors, Telstra, Optus and Vodafone have been hard at work. PS5 update: Here's when PlayStation 5 stock will return, Samsung Galaxy S21 release date, price specs and leaks, Samsung Galaxy S21 release date looks imminent — here's the proof, PS5 backwards compatibility just gave Xbox Series X a big win. Michael Simon covers all things mobile for PCWorld and Macworld. When we tested 5G networks in the past year, we usually saw marked improvements in download speeds for 5G vs. 4G. More phones today are equipped with 5G, connecting users with the next generation of network speeds. Despite the race to 5G, 53% of 1,800 tech and business executives surveyed for an Accenture report said 5G would enable them to do “very few” things that they couldn’t already do with 4G. The latest flagship phones from Samsung — the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20 Plus and Galaxy S20 Ultra — all feature 5G and work with every carrier. We wrote that: If you’re interested in buying a 5G phone specifically to use 5G, it still might be best to wait for the network to be more broadly available. We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. If you're willing to bide your time, you can get a 5G phone for half the cost of what you'd pay today. The best way to yell at him is on Twitter. Verizon 5G is live in parts of more than 34 cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, with average speeds of around 1.4Gbps. Thanks to the Galaxy S20 Plus and Galaxy S20 Ultra, AT&T has opened up its higher-speed 5G Plus in 35 cities which was previously restricted to select customers. Thank you for signing up to Tom's Guide. Sprint has officially be laid to rest and is now part of the T-Mobile family. AT&T has focused mainly on homes and businesses with mmWave cells for its first round of 5G coverage, but expects to begin rolling out its sub-6GHz 5G to mobile customers in early 2020. Even with service that uses low-band spectrum, like T-Mobile's 5G network, we've seen modest improvement over LTE speeds in some cases (though not always, as we'll discuss below). Now drop resistant up to 2 Meters. Verizon keeps talking about launching by the end of the year in 20 to 30 cities. OnePlus is rumored to launch the mid-range OnePlus Z, with 5G connectivity, but not in the US. Both the Galaxy S10 5G and Galaxy Note 10 Plus 5G, released last year, would set you back $1,299. Each carrier has been consistently adding additional coverage to its 5G network and will likely see the majority of the network improvements going forward. © This is partially due to the head-start they had on the competition but it should be noted that this advantage doesn’t entirely offset the reality that it is still something of a patchwork rollout. The MSI PS63 is an amazing laptop and I would definitely consider buying one in the future. Other than his home town of New York, his favorite …. The only 5G Sprint phones you should get right now are in the Galaxy S20 series. On Sprint and T-Mobile, 5G feels like good 4G. But millimeter-wave-based networks can be hard to find. However, it’s also extremely limited. LG, Motorola, OnePlus, and Samsung are all selling 5G devices, although it looks like Apple is waiting until 2020. However, that might change before the calendar changes to 2020. AT&T and Verizon phones should have support for band n5 while T-Mobile phones should support both n41 and n71.