5G? Worth It?

mejinks

mejinks

mejinks

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Im due to upgrade shortly and was wondering if its worth going for one of the newer 5G enabled phones? I'm on three if that makes a difference
 
I don't think so yet, maybe in a couple of years.

I had the option of a 5g version of my current phone but it was an extra outlay and 5g just isn't around enough yet.
 
depends on the level of 5g reception in your local area. I've just upgraded to a 5g tarrif alongside the note 10+5g. so far overall indoor noticed it to be a a bit faster so seeing speeds of 70mb download and 50mb upload where previously it was maxxing out 40mb download and 15ish on uploads
, outdoor certain areas ive hit 170mbs on speed test and in general videos have loaded nearly instantly. personally I thought indoor would have been better but it is still in early stages and to my knowledge Vodafone is still adding masts so hopefully will see an improvement over the coming months.
 
mejinks said:
Im due to upgrade shortly and was wondering if its worth going for one of the newer 5G enabled phones? I'm on three if that makes a difference
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No, and it probably will never be.

I have heard that if 5G is adopted worldwide, that will be the end of the human race because of the horrific levels of radiation over the population.
 
At the moment the infrastructure isn't there yet to supply smooth noise levels so the 5G radio doesn't have to consume extra power keeping the signal strong in areas it's available. It also consumes more power when in use anyway and by the time 5G is as widespread as 4G (+95% of the country), the phone you buy now iwll be a complete waste of extra money and a dinosaur of a device.

There is absolutely zero logical reason why anyone would buy a 5G phone now other than street-cred points.

Speed doesn't even factor into it. Most contracts are the mid to low tier data packages which throttle you to 60Mbits anyway. Whilst 4G typically in off-peak times and in strong areas offers up to around 150Mb down with 30-80Mb average. Even lower numbers during peak times.
 
mrk said:
At the moment the infrastructure isn't there yet to supply smooth noise levels so the 5G radio doesn't have to consume extra power keeping the signal strong in areas it's available. It also consumes more power when in use anyway and by the time 5G is as widespread as 4G (+95% of the country), the phone you buy now iwll be a complete waste of extra money and a dinosaur of a device.

There is absolutely zero logical reason why anyone would buy a 5G phone now other than street-cred points.

Speed doesn't even factor into it. Most contracts are the mid to low tier data packages which throttle you to 60Mbits anyway. Whilst 4G typically in off-peak times and in strong areas offers up to around 150Mb down with 30-80Mb average. Even lower numbers during peak times.
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Have to say I rarely do anything on my phone that the difference past about 20Mbit/s makes any difference and even tethering I struggle to put past about 60Mbit/s to use - the odd time it is nice if a bigger download finishes quicker but 9 times out of 10 I'm not bothered waiting a little on bigger downloads.
 
I've got EE 5G on note 10+ and it doesn't go much higher than 100Mb download speed in London. It is great though but I don't think it is quite there.
 
Atm its not worth it as 5G hasnt even been fully implemented yet. But I think by late 2020 or 2021 it'll be much better to upgrade then
 
There's barely any coverage and the first gen 5G modems aren't very good or support all the features/frequencies, the modems next year should be a lot better.
 
MrPotato said:
I hope 5G works better than DAB...
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Do you mean for radio stations reception or what? What are your complaints with DAB?

Very good technical article on the matter, saying that the future is DAB+.

Does 5G Make Sense for Radio?
https://www.radioworld.com/columns-and-views/does-5g-make-sense-for-radio

"For the time being, the national DAB multiplex in Germany comprises of 130 transmitters in a nationwide SFN. Today, coverage stands at around 95% for mobile reception, but in order to reach 99% coverage, the number of transmitters has to be increased to 250 at least and may be around 400 (including small gap fillers) in the long term.

With 5G Broadcast round about 10 times more transmitters will be required which might sum up to 2,500 or even 4,000 transmitters in Germany. The mobile network in Germany comprises already 40,000 transmitters today and everybody experiences that this is rather not enough. Concerning 5G mobile networks, experts anticipate that future high data rate networks will be based on a cell size of less than 1 square kilometre, which would sum-up to around 400,000 transmitters in Germany for nationwide area coverage.


What can we learn from these facts?
  1. The DAB+ network with its low number of transmitters is the most efficient network to realize a full area coverage
  2. The 5G broadcast networks, the mobile network and future 5G mobile networks require far too much transmitters for a full area coverage that nobody can expect the same area coverage as for DAB radio services
Assume e.g. transmitting costs for a full area DAB network in Germany of about €25 million per year. In order to gain 10 dB more transmitting power for smartphone reception, the network will cost a nationwide broadcaster approximately €250 million per year, as opposed to €25 million a year for conventional DAB. In Germany, no broadcaster is in a position to afford this amount of money — the price for this purpose to reach smartphones with radio is incredible high, and quite frankly, out of reach for any public broadcaster."
 
mrk said:
There is absolutely zero logical reason why anyone would buy a 5G phone now other than street-cred points.
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S10 5G here, biggest battery in the 10 series, bigger display than S10+, widest range of cameras available in the series and 512gb of storage.

Also hitting 400mb+ speeds when I go into Central London (Canary Wharf) and the coverage is expanding sooner rather than later. No worries about eating through data as I'm on an unlimited plan.

It's worth it if you can capitalise on 5G and the specs alone of the S10 5g model made going for this model worth it too.
 
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The problem is whilst the specs are great, it's not going to be worth half that monstrous cost come 5G rollout nationwide. By that time the same specs (if not better) will be considerably cheaper too. This purchase is only for the now, and not long term unless you're stuck with it on a 24 month contract I suppose.
 
mrk said:
The problem is whilst the specs are great, it's not going to be worth half that monstrous cost come 5G rollout nationwide. By that time the same specs (if not better) will be considerably cheaper too. This purchase is only for the now, and not long term unless you're stuck with it on a 24 month contract I suppose.
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This is why buying from that famous HK mobile shop for much cheaper made it worthwhile for me. I plan to keep this for at least two years so the 5g aside I got a good deal on a good spec phone.
 
Not yet. Google gave an honest answer as to why it should be avoided for the next year or so. Poor battery life, unsupported throughout most of the UK, unreliable when available, unpredictable outcome on new devices (hot batteries, hanging apps), so there is enough of a reason to hang on for now.
 
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