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Qualcomm: 5G Android Flagship Phones Will Storm the 2019 Holidays (cnet.com)

Get ready for lots of 5G phones in time for the holidays next year. From a report: The first devices for the fast, next-generation network will hit the market in early 2019. Samsung, for one, said it will have a phone for Verizon, AT&T and other networks in the first half of the year. By the holidays next year, every flagship handset -- at least when it comes to those running Google's Android software and using Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor -- will tap into 5G, said Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon. "When we get to exactly this time of year one year from now ... we will see every [handset maker] on the Android ecosystem, their flagship across all US carriers will be a 5G device," he told CNET in an interview Tuesday at Qualcomm's Snapdragon Technology Summit in Hawaii. "Every Android vendor is working on 5G right now."

47 comments

  1. Thanks for beta testing everyone! by SuperKendall · · Score: 1, Funny

    iPhone owners sure do appreciate you all beta testing spotty 5G networks for year or so before an iPhone starts to include them...

    I wasn't planning to get a new phone until 2020 anyway so I really appreciate the rest of you spending time, money and sanity to ensure my experience with 5G will be delightful later on.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re: Thanks for beta testing everyone! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tricky to decide what to get for a holiday phone

    2. Re:Thanks for beta testing everyone! by Anubis+IV · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's kinda where I'm at with my thinking. 5G support may storm the holiday season, but without the corresponding infrastructure upgrades in your area, it won't do you any good. Given that our local 4G connections didn't actually come with 4G speeds until somewhat recently, I'm not exactly holding my breath for 5G speeds anytime in the next few years in my area.

      And, frankly, even if they were to come soon, I'd be hard-pressed to think of many situations where I'd meaningfully benefit from the speed jump. There certainly are use cases for speeds like those (e.g. able to do work from a cellular-connected laptop), so I'm glad to see that the rollout is happening, but the heaviest thing most smartphone users might do is watch an HD video on YouTube, which only needs 3-5 Mbps for 1080p, which is a fraction of the speed that 4G already offers. They'll see no benefit from 5G, so marketing it as "storming" the holiday season is nothing more than an attempt at driving demand for a feature that laypeople don't really understand.

    3. Re:Thanks for beta testing everyone! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Someone has to have the courage to push tech forward and it sure isnt apple.

    4. Re:Thanks for beta testing everyone! by ClickOnThis · · Score: 0

      Someone has to have the courage to push tech forward and it sure isnt apple.

      This. I'll grant that Apple innovates in design. But technology? Not so much.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    5. Re:Thanks for beta testing everyone! by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Someone has to have the courage to push tech forward and it sure isnt apple.

      This. I'll grant that Apple innovates in design. But technology? Not so much.

      This isn't innovating in technology, this is innovating in MARKETING. "5G" is this season's cellphone Buzzword. Kudos to Qualcomm in getting a bunch of news-starved Tech-writer Sycophants to lap this up like it's the Second Cumming; when it hasn't even finished FOREPLAY yet...

    6. Re:Thanks for beta testing everyone! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For those of us in California, the roll-out has already begun and is expected to pick up most major metro areas by April.

    7. Re:Thanks for beta testing everyone! by Anubis+IV · · Score: 1

      That's great to hear, but again, there's a big difference between "receiving 5G coverage" and "receiving 5G speeds". Moreover, being in "most major metro areas" doesn't mean most people in most major metro areas will receive coverage.

      For instance, when it comes to wired ISPs, so long as anyone in the county has the option to purchase a broadband package—as self-reported by the ISPs themselves—the FCC considers the county as a whole to have broadband access. Similarly, a wireless carrier could claim that they provide coverage in 100% of the counties in a state by simply putting up one antenna in each county. It doesn't do 99% of the people in the state any good, but it makes for a great statistic to use when marketing their network to potential customers.

      Because they have a history of tactics like those, I don't put much stock in vague claims about being in places like "most major metro areas". That bar is actually pretty low.

    8. Re:Thanks for beta testing everyone! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ahhh the classic apple mindless worshipers "them 5G grapes are probably sour anyways" defense. Well payed.

    9. Re:Thanks for beta testing everyone! by geoscodin · · Score: 1

      I got an HTC Thunderbolt (the first and only 4G phone in my area on Verizon) on the last day to be grandfathered into unlimited data. Of course years later unlimited data is the norm. But will it be unlimited on 5G?

    10. Re:Thanks for beta testing everyone! by phalse+phace · · Score: 1

      iPhone 5G will be like iPhone 3G.

      https://www.computerworld.com/article/2532458/apple-mac/faq--iphone-3g-reception-----what-s-the-problem-.html

      You're better off waiting until at least 2021

    11. Re:Thanks for beta testing everyone! by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      them 5G apples are probably sour anyways

      FTFY

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  2. I have a 7 year old 3G smartphone by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It still works. I'll keep it. Fuck Christmas (sorry, it's "holiday season" officially now) mass consumption.

    In fact, fuck mass consumption and planned obsolescence year round...

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
    1. Re:I have a 7 year old 3G smartphone by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Really... The best time to buy is after the "holidays"... Can hardly wait to see the nice low prices on a Note 9...

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    2. Re:I have a 7 year old 3G smartphone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hold on, you're kind of making my point. I don't do it for mass consumption; the prices of certain things are artificially low at this time of year.

      Two kinds of people will buy:
      1) Someone who's got a 7 year old phone and has just been waiting for a low spot
      2) Someone who's got an older/broken phone that someone wants to do something nice for the holidays.

      There ARE people will be taken in. A $300 laptop marked to $150 is still a "three hundred dollar laptop", meaning all the slowness and poor battery life that comes with it.

      I may be different; I generally own Macs because when I spec up a linux machine, it's much more expensive. On the same line of thinking, my desktop is my heavy-lifter and my laptop is my "I need this somewhere else" --- so far, I've not been able to convince ANYONE dying for a high-end laptop to do it this way.

    3. Re:I have a 7 year old 3G smartphone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Verizon is going to shut down its 3G service at the end of 2019. Expect the other carriers to follow as they refarm the spectrum for LTE-A and 5G.

  3. Fuck Everything by c · · Score: 1
    --
    Log in or piss off.
  4. Followed by a 5G phone bill. by xack · · Score: 1

    For your 1G data cap.

  5. What a shit show by squiggleslash · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The 3GPP (the people responsible for GSM/UMTS/LTE) have said they don't plan to release a "standard" until March next year, the standard being slightly faster than the current generation of LTE. The standard will undergo continuous revisions then until it's ready to submit to the ITU as a true "5G" technology, which will be... 2020.

    So Qualcomm are talking about of their rears. What's going to happen is that a beta of an unfinished technology will be present in some phones by Christmas 2019, which will not be appreciably better than anything out right now, and might even be worse given the whole "Your phone may find itself connected via "5G NR" and due to a bug in your phone, or the tower, which is likely because this involves brand new hardware and software that's not undergone significant field testing, your phone doesn't work properly.

    Do not want.

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  6. Over the horizon by rickb928 · · Score: 1

    Christmas 2019? That's maybe 2 CPU releases from here. And being a TMO subscriber, I'm way more interested in Band 71 than early 5G.

    Oh, how about both? Yeah, baby. w/e.

    --
    deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
  7. Get ready for lots of 5G phones for next yr Xmas by grep+-v+'.*'+* · · Score: 1

    Really! Then tell me all about it next year.

    --
    If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
  8. And then again in 2021 by Kohath · · Score: 1

    Get ready to buy another new, much better 5G phone in 2021, as 5G service moves beyond the hype phase and really gets going. And probably another phone in 2023 as 5G matures.

    It's cool though. I have QCOM stock. Everyone obviously needs a new phone.

  9. NOT "fast", with more than paper in-between! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    * The frequencies for "5G" are so high, the barely get through anything at all. You nearly could as well just use laser.
    * Everyone in your area still has to share the same base station, with likely the same slow connection to the Internet.
    * The caps will still be complete jokes.
    * There is no 5G standard yet, so they will not work right, as soon as the standard is finalized and rolled out.

    Great job, Qualcomm!
    Trying to force your version to become the de-facto standard, no matter what the rest of the 3GPP agree on, are we?

    1. Re:NOT "fast", with more than paper in-between! by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      * The frequencies for "5G" are so high, the barely get through anything at all. You nearly could as well just use laser.
      * Everyone in your area still has to share the same base station, with likely the same slow connection to the Internet.
      * The caps will still be complete jokes.
      * There is no 5G standard yet, so they will not work right, as soon as the standard is finalized and rolled out.

      Great job, Qualcomm!
      Trying to force your version to become the de-facto standard, no matter what the rest of the 3GPP agree on, are we?

      Spot-On: Mod this to Infinity!

    2. Re:NOT "fast", with more than paper in-between! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry to do that you would need a infinite number of moronic apple zombies and you are one of the only few around.

      Why do you hate tech so much? Maybe stop buying sub par apple products and you might be able to be happier.

  10. I've got a news update for you: Not anymore! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The shops are already on to this. They usually don't lower the prices after the holidays, for quite some time. Because they noticed that people also keep buying after the holidays, for quite some time.
    I wonder when that race will end. Will they get full circle, or will it be a moving wave, and the art will be, to never stand still, and keep moving out of the way of the current predicted "high price zone"?

  11. That's nice. . . but by nehumanuscrede · · Score: 3, Informative

    The true question is, will the carriers have a RELIABLE, widespread 5G system upon which to use said phones ?

    The low frequency spectrum of 5G should be fine, but you won't see all the super bandwidth that the tech promises at that level.

    It's when you get to the high end of the 5G spectrum ( which is where all the bandwidth is ) that I have concerns about how well it's going to work considering the frequency at which it operates. ( 27 - 40 GHZ ) This area of the spectrum has serious issues when it comes to weather ( Rain, snow, fog, etc ) and has pretty much zero penetration so line of sight to the transmitter is pretty much mandatory.

    The way I visualize it is thinking about the effect heavy rain has on your Satellite TV signal. All those glitches and pixelation you see are a visual representation of what's going to happen to your data at the high bandwidth end of a 5G signal when the weather goes to sh*t. ( And at millimeter wavelengths, it will take far less weather to have the same effect )

    My theory anyway, some cellular engineer should chime in and tell me to STFU if I'm thinking incorrectly about all of this. ( Be sure to explain why )

    1. Re:That's nice. . . but by Puls4r · · Score: 1

      Considering how poor the initial LTE offerings were, I expect this to be no better. I remember trying to use my phone and having it jump back and forth between LTE and 3G because the coverage was shit as we traveled when LTE was being rolled out. Of course, the early LTE phones didn't really have a way to tell them not to use LTE, so what you got was an experience WORSE that 3G as your interconnection connection swapped back and forth and back and forth.

      5G is going to be that. But much much worse. Unless they are smart and maintain the LTE connection at the same time so there is seamless fall-back.

    2. Re:That's nice. . . but by jwhyche · · Score: 2

      I went through this with 3G and some low bandwidth shit that AT&T had. Edge, I believe it was called. This is the reason I always wait at least a year or two before getting on board with a new network technology. Give them time to get the bugs out and the coverage maps updated.

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
  12. You do know it'll just drop back to 4G by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    if there's a problem, right? No beta testing needed.

    For me I'm interested in 5G because with the 5G roll out comes better coverage in buildings for my carrier. And just plain better coverage overall.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  13. That depends on the tech. by SuperKendall · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Apple had the courage to push USB ports on people before they were popular, and had the courage to remove the headphone jack despite protests from an army of losers.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:That depends on the tech. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Removing the headphone jack wasn't courage. It was idiotic.

    2. Re:That depends on the tech. by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Removing the headphone jack wasn't courage. It was idiotic.

      RIght. Faster horses and all...

    3. Re:That depends on the tech. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bluetooth introduces lag, soooo slower horses.
      Damn but you ipologists are a stupid breed.

  14. Yes, exactly my point by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    You do know it'll just drop back to 4G

    That's honestly what I'm really getting at here, because some of the worst battery life I've had from phones is when they are switching between network modes - I travel to Utah a lot and it varies all over between 2G, 3G, LTE and so on. All of that switching really drains the battery to the point where in an area it will be changing a lot I sometimes just go into airplane mode so it will not be spending a lot of effort trying to maintain a connection.

    Very probably the first batch of 5G phones will get a lot of reports of poor battery life that are kind of unwarranted in terms of what the phones could normally do with a stable connection.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  15. Could be nice for tethering by SuperKendall · · Score: 2

    The one case maybe 5G would be more useful for would be when tethering, if your laptop needed some large app update...

    But basically I agree with you, that I don't see a pressing need. If I have a good strong LTE signal I will already be getting pretty good speeds.

    I'm sure 5G will be nice, I just don't see it as a major selling point for a while.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  16. It's time to start consolidating by nightfire-unique · · Score: 1

    It's time to start consolidating Android phones. There is no need to have 30 different variants for carriers and countries. We all speak the same language now - LTE.

    Apple made the right call putting carriers in their place all those years ago. Google really needs change the T&C of their suite to put a stop to this nonsense.

    --
    A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
  17. It all depends on your personal upgrade cycle by Ogive17 · · Score: 1

    Buying this phone simply because it's an early adopter of 5G is probably a silly thing to do. However if you feel this phone (without 5G) is worth it and you're the type to upgrade only every 2-3 years, maybe being 5G capable is a tie-breaker and helps future proof the phone a bit.

    It's not like it will be 5G exclusive.

    --
    "Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
  18. I'd worry about that personally... by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    However if you feel this phone (without 5G) is worth it and you're the type to upgrade only every 2-3 years, maybe being 5G capable is a tie-breaker and helps future proof the phone a bit.

    I'm actually thinking the other way on this one - I was thinking about getting another phone next year (generally try to get a new one every other year). But what I don't want to do is buy first-get hardware with a new technology, just as the networks will be growing and tested through next year, so too will the chips inside be... I'd like to wait just a bit and let someone develop a second generation of 5G chips at least before I brought that into the phone.

    So right now I'm leaning to a new phone in 2020 instead of 2019.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:I'd worry about that personally... by Ogive17 · · Score: 1

      I get a new phone every 3 or 4 years and even then I always go back one generation of phone because I'm cheap and am not a big user.

      But I have friends that upgrade a bit more frequently and like the latest and greatest, 5G capable might be something for them.

      The early adopters always run into issues. There is some benefit to being first to market but there are plenty of companies (Apple, Toyota, for example) that let others make the path then come in with more polished versions.

      --
      "Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
  19. What's the big deal over 5G? by ilsaloving · · Score: 1

    I just don't get what the big deal is about 5G. LTE is already so fast it does everything I could possibly want with a mobile device. The only way more speed would be of value would be if I needed to regularly deal with multi-gigabyte files while on the train or something. Which would never happen anyway because the average mobile company is so stingy with the total monthly bandwidth that I'd never do that anyway. Which again, makes 5G basically pointless except for the super wealthy.

  20. 5G isn't for you, it's for the surveillance state. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The tower ranges for the 5G deployments in California are so short that they will literally be on every streetcorner. This will provide millimeter level signal accuracy for every person carrying a 5G capable cellphone, and likely will turn out to have passive sensing capabilities for 3G/4G phones as well.

    Imagine this more like a stingray on every streetcorner and you will begin to understand the push to deploy 5G everywhere, even in neighborhoods that want to charge the network carriers more for the benefit.

    Deploying this everywhere only benefits the corporations involved and the government's surveillance apparatus, not the people, who will find their internet caps exactly the same, because the demand isn't to improve their service, but to maintain their data usage at levels the government can collect, document, and generate reports on.

    For those of you who don't believe me, dig deeper. If you can believe in, or refute the 'Deep State' conspiracy, you can easily discover that the cover stories are all about diverting attention from something far deeper and far more fundamentally corrupting to our way of life.

    Repost, Retweet, Rebel.

  21. Getting old I guess by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Honestly I just don't see the point of 5g right now, as it's rare that I see any real bandwidth challenges on my phone even when streaming music or videos.

    LTE was a huge jump, as for 5g I certainly wouldn't buy an Android phone for it, and I can't even see a reason to switch from my iPhone 7 if Apple adds it in 2020.

  22. I'm still waiting for the supposed 4G speeds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I recall that 4G was supposed to be in the hundreds of megabits if not a lot more. I'm still waiting for that to happen. But even if it did. What good is it? With data caps on all unlimited plans which then turn into super slow connections thereafter it seems futile to even pay for a cellular internet connection when it's so severely crippled. I can't download hundreds of gigabits a month on it. I spent $300 / month for a few months while I waited for fiber to be installed and during this time I lived with it without downloading video or large files and restricted my use to the business essentials. I have no faith 5G is going to fix this.

  23. 5G Android Flagship Phones Will Storm the Holidays by ChatHuant · · Score: 1

    Methinks it will be a tempest in a teapot...

  24. One phone for all, plese. by bjwest · · Score: 1

    Samsung, for one, said it will have a phone for Verizon, AT&T and other networks in the first half of the year.

    I don't understand why they need to make different models for each carrier band. The transceiver chips aren't that expensive and don't take much room. Give me a phone I can take to whatever carrier I want when I want, and be done with it. Hell, the cost of the chips can probably be offset by the need to design and make different motherboards.

    Oh, and a battery I can replace would be nice as well.

    --

    --- Keep the choice with the user..
  25. We *like* tech, *that* is why we oppose this! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's like when people say how much computers suck.
    Because to them, the crap they use, is what computers are!
    They don't know that it's not tech, per se, but the horribly shitty way it's implemented!

    [E.g. there is no much obsession about "simplicity", that the empowerment has gone completely out the window! Where we could have computers serve the average Joe as an universal tool to automate all his information processing work away, he has an utterly idiotic single-finger point-and-click interface, where he only has the choice between pre-fabricated fixed-function tools (apps), or doing what would be a loop over a list by hand! (Try scripting any of those stupid graphical user interfaces...)]

    What we want, is proper 5G!
    * E.g. there is technology that allows base stations to work together, to form signals that cause constructive interference at your location, essentially creating a personal virtual base station for everyone. Which allows many devices to operate on the same band, simply because they are at different locations. Meaning in the normal case, every user can use the entire spectrum available. And you can improve the quality of the virtual base station signal, simply by placing additional real base stations at arbitrary places in the space, and giving everyone its exact coordinates.
    * And there is zero reason for the horrible data caps! They do not bear any relation whatsoever to the actual work we get in return. (Like construction, maintenance and electricity bills.)
    * How you could read somebody saying he wants a proper standard, and conclude that he must like Apple, of all things, will probably forever be a riddle to us.

    Why can you Americans only think in EXTREME OVER THE TOP LOVE, or EXTREME OVER THE TOP HATE? It's just like you are always so loud and obnoxious. ... Did you grow up in a barn-slash-party-pub? Learn to have more more nuanced thoughts!