5G SMARTPHONE BUYING GUIDE
TELSTRA SAYS IT will “transform the way we live and work”. Optus says it has “the ability to impact our lives in real and positive ways”. But what is 5G, really, and is it worth upgrading to one of the latest smartphones that support it? 5G is the fifth generation of mobile cellular technology. It promises substantially faster data speeds, lower latency, and more network capacity compared to 4G. Latency refers to the delay between requesting something over the internet and actually receiving it. If you’re browsing the web, for instance, latency would be the time it takes for a page to load after you entered the URL. Lower latency is better, and 5G promises a significant reduction, making it an ideal network for applications where even a fraction of a second makes a difference (such as gaming and Internet-of-Things appliances).
Theoretically, 5G is capable of peak download speeds of up to 20Gbps, but the actual speed it can achieve depends on a number of variables such as the type of network technology used, signal strength, and the equipment you’re using to connect to it.
Real-world speeds in Australia are said to be a minimum of 100Mbps, which is still much faster than 4G (which typically averages around 20Mbps). It’s also faster than the average Australian broadband connection speed of 33Mbps.
The speeds you get on 5G can vary dramatically. Outside of Telstra HQ in Sydney, we averaged downloads of around 191Mbps, while standing outside Westfields at Bondi Junction yielded 406Mbps. Only two blocks away from the Westfields, 5G speeds plummeted to 36.8Mbps, which was actually slower than our 4G connection.
The good news is that you don’t have to rush out and upgrade your current smartphone just yet. 5G is still very much a work in progress in Australia, with base stations being progressively rolled out by Telstra and Optus, and Vodafone to join the ranks in 2020.
FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE, 4G WILL CONTINUE TO RUN AS NORMAL, SO YOU CAN KEEP USING YOUR EXISTING MOBILE DEVICES. AS THE 5G NETWORK BECOMES MORE MATURE, HOWEVER, AND WITH 5G SMARTPHONES BECOMING MORE THE NORM THAN THE EXCEPTION, YOU CAN EXPECT 4G TO BECOME MORE THE ‘BACKUP’ NETWORK USED IN LESS POPULATED AREAS OF AUSTRALIA.
Current 5G coverage is patchy at best. Telstra expects
