Samsung Releases World's First 5G Mobile Phones

With the way technology is improving, one will wonder if we can keep the pace. When did we all celebrate the introduction of 3G? Now we have 5G devices at our disposal? Wasn’t that too fast?

Telecom giant, Samsung Electronics has today released the Galaxy S10 5G. This is the world's first ‘available’ Smartphone that has built-in fifth-generation communications.

The device was designed and released by Samsung Electronics in Seoul, South Korea; as the company seeks to build the world’s most innovative and transformative technological devices.

Earlier in the week, South Korea launched a nationwide 5G service, making them the first country in the world – ahead of the United States and China - to do so. On Wednesday this week, three of the country’s super-fast networks went live and began offering data speeds that run on 5G which allow users to download entire movies in less than a second; how awesome?

Hours later US giant Verizon began commercial services in Chicago and Minneapolis after rival AT&T made a 5G-based system available to selected users in parts of 12 cities in December.

South Korea's three mobile carriers, SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus, held launch events across Seoul for the Galaxy S10 5G, whose base version costs 1.39 million won ($1,200).

"I watch a lot of videos often, movies and lectures," said buyer Shim Ji-Hye, 38. "I hope faster speeds will help me manage my time better."

Another user said he was most excited about virtual reality content - which includes games and even "celebrity VR dating" apps according to the country's mobile carriers.

With 5G, said researcher Lee Sang-Yoon, VR content "can be enjoyed in real time with no delay... I'll be able to enjoy it in better resolution and speed".

By Friday afternoon, 15,000 buyers had subscribed to the LG UPlus 5G services, and more than 10,000 to KT's offer, the carriers said.

You will recall that we published the news of Chinese telecoms giant and second largest electronics producer in the world, Huawei launching a foldable 5G Smartphone in Barcelona on the 24th of February ahead of the 2019 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Spain's Barcelona.

This was in quick response to Samsung's unveiling of its foldable phone version earlier that week.

The Huawei product cannot count as a 5G device yet because it hasn’t been released, so it is not available. This means that Samsung Electronics has won the crown in the release of 5G devices.

What are your thoughts?

Quotes Credit: AFP

Header Image Credit: PHOTO | JUNG YEON-JE | AFP