5G is being heralded as a new dawn for cellular technology, with the promise of enormous bandwidth and previously unthinkable download speeds.
But its appeal and general usefulness to the masses remains uncertain even as as an inevitable deluge of 5G enabled handsets is set to bombard the market.
Samsung, Oppo, Xiaomi, One Plus and LG have either already released, or will be releasing, 5G devices.
EE celebrated the launch with an elaborate 5G-powered gig by rapper Stormzy on the River Thames, but it remains to be seen if it will live up to the significant fanfare.
MailOnline got hands-on with the ultra-fast mobile internet to see how it fares compared to existing technology.
Sat at a bustling coffee shop in the middle of central London, my 4G-enabled iPhone X topped out at a respectable 26 Mbps (right), according to the Netflix-powered site fast.com. A 5G OnePlus Pro however clocked an impressive 380 Mbps (left) – an improvement of almost 15x
Speed test
A quick connectivity speed test delivered the simplest way of looking at the contrast between the two connections – in plain black and white text.
Sat at a bustling coffee shop in the middle of central London, my 4G-enabled iPhone X topped out at a respectable 26 Mbps, according to the Netflix-powered site fast.com.
A 5G compatible OnePlus Pro however clocked an impressive 380 Mbps – an improvement of almost 15 times.
EE claims there have been recorded speeds exceeding even this, a truly staggering number when compared to the top-tier home broadband options available.
For example, Virgin Media’s package with all the bells and whistles provides speeds of up to 500Mbps, it announced in April.
But the Wi-Fi-rivalling speed of 5G was never really in doubt as hyperbolic claims of 5G’s transcendent ability have long been banded around.
Many people in tech circles have been speaking of 5G’s speed in almost hushed voices for several years.
And, on paper at least, it seems to be living up to the substantial hype.
Internet browsing
A general-use test of the 5G handset found the internet speed was rapid when loading sites, flicking through various open apps and loading media.
Browsing the internet felt slick and smooth and streaming content was not a problem.
For this, the 4G phone also performed admirably. It lagged behind the 5G device marginally but gave a good showing.
Downloading films
A like-for-like download of a film on Netflix – the Roald Dahl classic Matilda – served as an impromptu download test which can be replicated by anybody.
It also acted as the first true mark of 5G’s clear superiority.
5G managed to download the 379.3MB film in approximately ten seconds.
Here, 4G not only struggled to keep up with its successor, but was blown completely out of the water.
It took a long time to process the demand and the blue circle indicating its progress moved at barely a snail’s pace.
4G failed to get a third of the way through the download in a minute, taking approximately 18 times longer to complete the same task.
According to data from engineering firm RS Components, based in the UK, downloading a full 1080p movie on the go with 5G could theoretically be done in as little as 13 seconds.
Standard 4G, however, would take 10 minutes 44 seconds, according to their own analysis.
Pictured, a like for like comparison of the download speed of Matilda on Netflix. Left: downloading the film on a 4G iPhone X. Right: downloading the same 379.3MB film on a 5G OnePlus Pro. 5G completed it in around ten seconds whereas 5G took about 18 times this long
4K viewing and scrubbing
4K video often poses a problem for poor internet connections as the data-intensive streaming can prove too much for most connections.
Those familiar with it praise its striking visual content and how it offers a unique viewing experience.
For those who have never encountered 4K video, it can be thought of as high definition, but on steroids.
A major problem is that when fast forwarding through large chunks of video, it often requires a period of time to load – or ‘buffering’.
This jumping process is known as scrubbing and when I tested out 5G and 4G on the same 4K video on YouTube, I was surprised to find that the 4G device performed marginally better.
5G took a split second to load, with the dreaded loading circle emerging ever so briefly.
But 4G, surprisingly, performed better. There was no lapse, an instantaneous pick-up and no pixelation.
It seems this rather inexplicable occurrence may be an anomaly, but it shows that the 5G network still needs some work as teething problems arise in the infancy of its roll-out.
When I tested out 5G and 4G on the same 4K video on YouTube, I was surprised to find that the 4G device performed marginally better. 5G took a split second to load, with the dreaded loading circle emerging ever so briefly (pictured)
Verdict
5G did perform better than its predecessor but does it deliver on the tantalising claims that have preceded its release for years?
Well, not really.
But the issue is not with 5G, it performed admirably and did almost everything it was asked to do impeccable. The issue is what it is restricted to being able to do.
There’s only so much phones are able to do and in the limited capacity the test allows, it was hard to really stretch the limits of the 5G network to beyond what 4G is also capable of doing.
5G and its widespread implementation is inevitable, but most existing apps, websites and platforms are designed to work within existing architecture.
They therefore don’t tap into the vast potential of the technology.
MailIOnline’s test and verdict finds 5G to be everything it claims to be, but it will have to wait a while for the rest of the industry to figure out how to use it properly before it approaches its potential.
WHAT IS 5G AND WHAT DOES IT DO?
The evolution of the G system started in 1980 with the invention of the mobile phone which allowed for analogue data to be transmitted via phone calls.
Digital came into play in 1991 with 2G and SMS and MMS capabilities were launched.
Since then, the capabilities and carrying capacity for the mobile network has increased massively.
More data can be transferred from one point to another via the mobile network quicker than ever.
5G is expected to be launched in 2020 and will be up to 1,000 times faster than the currently used 4G.
Whilst the jump from 3G to 4G was most beneficial for mobile browsing and working, the step to 5G will be so fast they become almost real-time.
That means mobile operations will be just as fast as office-based internet connections.
Potential uses for 5g include:
- Simultaneous translation of several languages in a party conference call
- Self-driving cars can stream movies, music and navigation information from the cloud
- A full length 8GB film can be downloaded in six seconds.
5G is expected to be so quick and efficient it is possible it could start the end of wired connections.
By the end of 2020, industry estimates claim 50 billion devices will be connected to 5G.
The evolution of from 1G to 5G. The predicted speed of 5G is more than 1Gbps – 1,000 times greater than the existing speed of 4G and could be implemented in laptops of the future
When and where is 5G coming to the UK?
Earlier this month EE announced it would be launching 5G, and today it has gone live.
Initially, it will be in six cities, the UK metropolises of London, Cardiff, Belfast, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Manchester.
A further ten will be added before the end of 2019.
These are Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield.
The roll out continues in 2020 and will cover Aberdeen, Cambridge, Derby, Gloucester, Peterborough, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Southampton, Worcester and Wolverhampton.
EE says it will include more and more places over the coming years, stating it plans to reach 1,500 sites by the end of 2019.
EE boss Marc Allera said the roll-out would help ‘keep the UK at the forefront of digital technology’.
EE will not have the monopoly on the British 5G market for very long, with Vodafone joining the party on July 3.
Vodafone may have been the first to announce an official date, but EE undercut this by more than a month.
It will launch initially in seven cities, compared to EE’s six, with just London, Cardiff and Manchester hosting both networks.
Vodafone will also be in Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow and Liverpool.
Myriad other smaller cities will then get 5G throughout the year, including: Stoke, Blackpool and Portsmouth.
O2 is also working on its 5G capabilities but appears to be lagging behind the other two in terms of established infrastructure and clear plans.
It said in February it will launch 5G in the UK at some point this year. It has yet to elaborate on this.
It also intends to start in just four places, earmarking the capital cities of the UK nations – Belfast, London, Cardiff and Edinburgh.
EE has today rolled-out 5G to six cities across the UK – London, Cardiff, Belfast, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Manchester (pictured, green). A further ten will be added before the end of 2019 and myriad more before the end of next year, EE claims
Can I get a 5G phone?
Handsets have to be specifically enabled to accept 5G as it requires a different core.
It can accept 5G signals while also accepting 4G signals, giving the best of both.
Currently, EE is the only network provider which ofers 5G and 5Gphones.
The OnePlus Pro is available to buy in stores and 5G versions of the Samsung S10, OPPO Reno and LG V50 ThinQ are available for pre-order.
Huawei did offer 5G devices in the form of the Huawei Mate X and the Huawei Mate 20 X but these have been paused following the recent fallout as Google revoked the Android license of the Chinese firm.
Devices from other manufactures are also 5G compatible, including the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G, ZTE Axon 10 Pro and the Royole FlexPai.
Prices differ very minutely from existing plans, with the top of the range S10 available from £69 a month with 5G.
The lower spec OnePlus and OPPO devices come in at £59 and £54, respectively.
