5G Phones

The first 5G networks are about to launch in the UK and they’re set to offer greater speed, capacity and – ultimately - coverage, as well as brand new applications and services. To take advantage of these benefits, we’ll need new 5G-enabled phones.

While most current phones are still 4G, we’re now starting to see the first 5G handsets arrive. Phones which in many cases are also packed full of features and power.

Here’s a look at what 5G phones are available now, what ones are likely coming soon and why you might want one – beyond the promise of faster mobile data.

What 5G-ready phones are currently available?

While you can’t buy many 5G phones yet in the UK at the time of writing, some have been announced and will be going on sale very soon – in fact a few can already be pre-ordered and one is on sale. Below you’ll find information on the handsets which have now been announced and when to expect them in the UK.

5G Phone	Announced	Release date
OnePlus 7 Pro 5G	May, 2019	Pre-order on EE
LG V50 ThinQ	February, 2019	Pre-order on EE
Huawei Mate X	February, 2019	Second half 2019
Samsung Galaxy S10 5G	February, 2019	Pre-order on EE Pre-order on Vodafone
Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G	February, 2019	Pre-order on Vodafone
ZTE Axon 10 Pro	February, 2019	Second half 2019
Oppo Reno 5G	April, 2019	Pre-order on EE
Huawei Mate 20 X	February, 2019	Mid-2019
Royole FlexPai	November, 2018	Out now (5G coming later)

Samsung Galaxy S10 5G

The highest profile announced 5G handset is the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G. This is a 5G version of the flagship Galaxy S10, but it’s an upgrade in a number of other ways too, including its 6.7-inch QHD+ curved screen, its 4,500mAh battery, and six cameras, with four on the back (a 12MP f/2.4 telephoto lens, a 12MP lens that can switch between f/1.5 and f/2.4, a 16MP ultra-wide f/2.2 lens, and a 3D depth sensor), and two on the front (a 10MP one and a 3D depth sensor).

The Samsung Galaxy S10 5G is the only one of the range to sport 3D depth sensors and it’s an addition made with 5G in mind, as the technologies combined could help power augmented and virtual reality use cases, among other things.

The Samsung Galaxy S10 5G also has an in-screen fingerprint scanner, a top-end Exynos 9820 chipset, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, plus a premium, water-resistant build.

The Galaxy S10 5G is hitting stores on June 7th, and we know that Vodafone, O2 and EE will be stocking it. We also know that on EE (where pre-orders are open) it starts at £69 per month. SIM-free meanwhile it will cost you £1,099.

Pre-order Galaxy S10 5G on EE  

Pre-order Galaxy S10 5G  on Vodafone

OnePlus 7 Pro 5G

The OnePlus 7 Pro 5G will be one of the first 5G phones to land, as it’s arriving on EE on May 30th and can be pre-ordered already, with prices starting at £59 per month.

As well as 5G, this phone has a 6.67-inch 1440 x 3120 curved screen with almost no bezel – instead, the selfie camera pops out of the top and the fingerprint scanner is built into the display.

It also has a triple-lens rear camera, with a 48MP main lens, a 16MP wide-angle one and an 8MP telephoto one, plus a 4,000mAh battery, a top-end Snapdragon 855 chipset and 256GB of storage.

So it’s a true 5G flagship, yet it undercuts the Galaxy S10 5G and most other early 5G phones.

Pre-order OnePlus 7 Pro 5G on EE

Huawei Mate X

The Huawei Mate X is another very exciting 5G phone that’s already been announced. In fact, it’s even more exciting than the Galaxy S10 5G, but also more niche. That’s because it also has a folding screen and is set to cost €2,299 (around £2,000).

The Mate X can be used as phone-sized device with a 6.6-inch screen on one side and a 6.4-inch one on the other, or it can be opened out into an 8-inch 2200 x 2480 tablet-sized device.

It has an OLED screen, three cameras, a super-powerful octa-core Kirin 980 chipset, 8GB of RAM, a massive 4,500mAh battery, and 512GB of storage, so this is a top-end handset even before you factor in the 5G or folds. EE, Three and Vodafone had all confirmed plans to stock the Mate X at some point this year, with Vodafone saying it will arrive this summer. However, with Huawei potentially being cut off from access to Google services that might affect the launch.

LG V50 ThinQ

The LG V50 ThinQ is LG’s first 5G phone and as well as 5G it has a 6.4-inch 1440 x 3120 screen, a top-end Snapdragon 855 chipset, 6GB of RAM, and a triple lens rear camera, with a 12MP standard lens, a 12MP telephoto one and a 16MP ultra-wide one.

It also has a 4,000mAh battery and stereo speakers, with the latter boosted by DTS:X technology which can create a surround sound-like experience, while aptX and aptX HD audio technology are used to improve the sound when using headphones.

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of the V50 ThinQ though – other than its 5G – is its optional DualScreen accessory, which lets you clip a second 6.2-inch screen to the device, one which can be used independently, bringing the LG V50 ThinQ a bit closer to being a folding phone.

EE has revealed that it will exclusively be offering the phone in the UK and you can already pre-order it, starting at £69 per month, with stock set to arrive from sometime in June.

Pre-order LG V50 ThinQ on EE

Oppo Reno 5G

The Oppo Reno 5G is another 5G phone that you’ll be able to buy in the UK soon – though only on EE, as that’s the exclusive network partner for the device.

The Oppo Reno 5G has a 6.6-inch 1080 x 2340 AMOLED screen, a 16MP pop-up selfie camera, and a triple-lens rear camera, with a 48MP main lens, a 13MP telephoto lens (capable of 10x lossless zoom) and an 8MP wide-angle lens.

The phone has a top-end Snapdragon 855 chipset, 8GB of RAM, a 4,065mAh battery, and an in-screen fingerprint scanner.

It’s available to pre-order on EE from £54 per month and stock is expected from sometime in June.

Pre-order Oppo Reno 5G on EE

Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G

The standard Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 was actually announced back in 2018 and back then the company revealed that a 5G model would be launched at some point.

Well, that’s now happened. The Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G in most other ways is similar to the standard model, but that’s no bad thing. It has a 6.39-inch 1080 x 2340 AMOLED screen, and a slide-out dual-lens selfie camera, which in turn means there’s no notch and almost no bezel.

Additionally, the Mi Mix 3 5G has a powerful Snapdragon 855 chipset, a pair of 12MP cameras on the back, a 3,800mAh battery, a dedicated Google Assistant button, a hybrid cooling system and a ceramic body. Plus, at just €599 (around £520) it could be one of the cheapest 5G phones available initially.

It’s also the first one available, as Vodafone launched the phone on May 23rd – though you’ll need to do a software update on June 14th to ensure 5G works.

Pre-order Mi Mix 5G on Vodafone

ZTE Axon 10 Pro

The ZTE Axon 10 Pro is another top-end phone that also supports 5G. It has a 6.47-inch 1080 x 2340 AMOLED screen, 6GB of RAM, a Snapdragon 855 chipset, barely any bezel and – like most current 5G phones – it uses the Snapdragon X50 5G modem.

There are three cameras on the back, namely a 48MP main lens, a 20MP ultra-wide-angle one and an 8MP telephoto one. Plus the ZTE Axon 10 Pro has a 4,000mAh battery, an in-screen fingerprint scanner, and AI smarts, which allow the phone to automatically adjust the CPU, GPU, RAM and ROM as needed. We don’t know what the ZTE Axon 10 Pro will cost, but you should be able to buy it during the first half of 2019.

Huawei Mate 20 X

As well as the Huawei Mate X, the company is also launching a 5G version of the already-available Huawei Mate 20 X. Specs haven’t yet been confirmed, but rumours point to a massive 7.2-inch screen (just like the standard model), along with a 4,200mAh battery.

We’re not sure when this one will land, but Vodafone had originally said to expect it at some point this summer. Since then though both it and EE have paused their plans to stock it until they know Huawei’s situation. SIM-free pricing is set to be £999.

Moto Z3

There’s also a sort-of 5G phone in the form of the Motorola Moto Z3. This is already available but only in the US, and it doesn’t support 5G out of the box – instead you need to connect a 5G Moto Mod, which isn’t available in the UK, only landed in the US in April, and currently only works on Verizon and in a very limited number of places.

The Moto Z3 itself has a Snapdragon 835 chipset, up to 6GB of RAM, a 6.01-inch 1080 x 2160 Super AMOLED screen, and a 12MP dual-lens rear camera.

Royole FlexPai

The Royole FlexPai is another phone that’s out now. It was the first foldable phone to launch and it will at some point get a software update to enable 5G – but that hasn’t arrived yet.

It’s also probably not something you should rush out and buy, as it’s very expensive (the only current models available in the UK are aimed at developers and start at £1,209). It’s also - based on early reviews - seemingly not a particularly polished handset.

Which manufacturers are rumoured to be launching 5G phones?

As you can see in the table below a number of other manufacturers are known or rumoured to be working on 5G phones. 

Manufacturer	Phone model	Rumoured announcement
Honor	To be confirmed	Mid to Late 2019
Apple	To Be confirmed	2019/ 2020
Vivo	To be confirmed	2020
Sony	To be confirmed	TBC
Huawei	To be confirmed	Mid to Late 2019
Samsung	Galaxy Note 10 5G (TBC)	Late 2019
Xiaomi (Black Shark)	To be confirmed	2019

Apple

There have been rumours that Apple is trying to source a 5G modem for its 2019 iPhones, so we may see the first 5G phone from Apple in late 2019 (when the next iPhones are likely to launch).

Then again, Apple is typically slow to embrace new technology, particularly when the infrastructure for it isn’t widely available, so we suspect we might not see a 5G iPhone before 2020. Indeed, that’s now been specifically rumoured.

So our best guess for now is that the first 5G iPhone will be the iPhone 12 (or whatever Apple calls it) and that it will land around September 2020, but there’s an outside chance that the iPhone 11, expected around September 2019, will support 5G.

If it is the iPhone 11, then rumours for it include a triple-lens rear camera, with two of the lenses being 14MP and 10MP, a 5.8-inch screen, smaller bezels and notch than the iPhone XS, a 4,000mAh battery, a USB-C port, and a 10MP front camera.

The iPhone 12 meanwhile will probably get all of that (if the iPhone 11 does) and may also have a 3D rear camera that uses lasers to function.

There’s also an outside chance that we might be waiting until 2021 for a 5G iPhone, especially as Apple has seemingly had issues finding a 5G modem supplier capable of manufacturing enough, but 2020 remains our best guess for now, with Qualcomm currently looking like the best modem option, despite the two companies’ legal issues.

Honor

Honor is also known to be working on a 5G phone, and having previously said that it aims to be the first to market, has now switched to saying its 5G phone will land in the second half of 2019.

We don’t know anything about the phone yet, but it sounds like nothing is set in stone anyway, as in an interview with Android Authority, the company’s president said “when and which model depends on the operators’ infrastructure and progress.”

Vivo

Then there’s Vivo. The company has confirmed that it’s working on a 5G handset using its Vivo Nex device as the basis, though it probably won’t be available until 2020. It’s also worth noting that Vivo handsets aren’t often widely available in the UK, so you might have to import it.

The Vivo Nex, for what it’s worth, has no bezel or notch at the top, as instead there’s a pop-up selfie camera. It also has an in-screen fingerprint scanner, a 6.59-inch 1080 x 2316 screen, 8GB of RAM and a high-end (by 2018’s standards) Snapdragon 845 chipset, as well as a dual-lens 12MP and 5MP rear camera pairing and a 4,000mAh battery.

Of course, we’d expect at least some of those specs will be changed or updated for the eventual 5G model. Most notably the chipset, which is no longer Qualcomm’s latest.

Sony

Sony hasn’t specifically confirmed a 5G phone, but it has come very close, talking a lot in blog posts and presentations about 5G technology (in one case mentioning both 5G and phones in the same presentation slide). So we might see a 5G phone from the company in 2019, though with the Sony Xperia 1 having been announced in February with no 5G, we might be waiting until the Sony Xperia 2 likely in late 2019.

That’s not so surprising, as Sony has previously gone on record recently saying that it doesn’t want to rush to launch a 5G handset and will probably only launch one when there’s a need from networks and customers. As yet though we don’t know anything about the company’s 5G phone.

Huawei

We also might soon see additional 5G phones from Huawei. As exciting as the Mate X is, it’s also too expensive for most buyers, while the Mate 20 X is likely to be a bit big for most users, so it would make sense for Huawei to support a mainstream device with 5G.

Most promisingly on that front, the company has said that’s it’s considering adding 5G to the Huawei Mate 30 range (landing in the second half of 2019).

Samsung

As well as the Galaxy S10 5G we unsurprisingly will probably get a Samsung Galaxy Note 10 5G alongside the standard phablet in late 2019.

As well as being an obvious thing for Samsung to launch, it has specifically been mentioned by Verizon, which is likely to know about such things in advance.

Spec rumours are thin on the ground, but expect an even bigger screen and better specs than the S10 range, along with Samsung’s S Pen stylus.

Black Shark

Black Shark (the gaming-phone brand from Xiaomi) has confirmed that it is also launching a 5G phone soon – probably this year.

They haven’t said anything about the handset yet, but being a gaming phone it’s sure to have lots of power and a great screen.

Why would I want one?

Beyond speed there are all sorts of reasons to want a 5G phone, as the tech is sure to enable all sorts of new and improved use cases, with the following being among the highlights:

Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality

Current 4G limits what can be done with applications such as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) due to restrictions in bandwidth, latency and uniformity (the consistency of mobile connection). ABI Research anticipates that 5G will bring about “a 10X improvement in throughput, a 10X decrease in latency, a 100X improvement in traffic capacity, and a 100X improvement in network efficiency” over 4G, and could therefore unlock the full potential of VR and AR technology.

• Augmented reality

Augmented reality adds a virtual layer over the real world.

Already we are seeing the emergence of AR apps and games for smartphones – for example, being able to see how clothes or a new haircut will likely look on you before you take the plunge, or using Google’s Translate app to translate content such as signs or menus. This is likely to be just the beginning. According to AR/VR consultancy Digi-Capital, mobile AR could hit an installed base of 900 million by the end of 2018, and 3.5 billion by 2022. ARtillry, an AR research and analysis firm, expects to see 4.25 billion AR devices available by 2022.

Soon, we could be using AR on our smartphones to check the stock of an item in a shop as we pass, evaluating the wait time and availability in a restaurant, or even finding friends in a crowd. In the future, car windscreens could display an AR overlay showing navigation directions.

• Virtual reality

Virtual Reality is about creating immersive computer-simulated worlds. Future 5G phones will likely be built with VR in mind.

Already a number of companies have built VR headsets which you can attach your phone to, and this is set to become far more mainstream.

With the power of 5G you’d be able to stream VR content and play online VR games wherever you are.

One example use case for VR with 5G is live-streaming a sporting event over social media, using VR to make the feed truly immersive – 5G promises the speeds necessary to make this a seamless experience and should be able to handle thousands of people streaming at the same time in close proximity.

3D video calls

5G also promises to enable 3D video calls, where the caller’s perspective can change based on their position and angle. It could make the experience much closer to feeling like you’re in the same room as the person you’re talking to. Oppo tested 3D video calling with 5G earlier in 2018.

Holographic video

Holographic content is also a promising area, with phones projecting images out of the screen. There are already a few phones with built-in projectors, so this could almost be seen as the next step after that.

Holographic files are likely to be enormous in size, so to do them justice a 5G connection will be required. Vodafone has already carried out a holographic 5G call, so holograms could well be an early use for 5G.

Power

5G might offer the speed to drive all these applications, but smartphones will still need huge amounts of power on the hardware side.

Handsets are getting more powerful all the time, but by 2020 don’t be surprised if your phone is as powerful as your current desktop computer.

Already phones with 8GB of RAM are available, so we could easily be at 16GB by then, coupled with enormously powerful processors.

Cloud computing

While smartphones are likely to start feeling more like super computers the cloud is also likely to become a much bigger part of our lives.

Given the size of holographic, VR and 8K content, much of it will likely be streamed over 5G rather than downloaded. However, with the speed of 5G, cloud use on our phones could go beyond just content storage and also be used to power apps and games, with the data essentially being run and processed on remote servers, then simply streamed to our phones over 5G.

In theory, that could further level out performance between low and high-end handsets, since even cheap phones could offload computing tasks to remote devices, just as long as they can get a 5G connection.

New form factors

With all these changes to the functionality of phones, their forms are likely to change too.

To make the most of AR and VR, phones might have extra cameras and sensors built in.

Projectors could be a common feature too. Features such as VR need a high-resolution screen to work well – soon, phones could widely support 4K (3840 x 2160) or even 8K (7680 x 4320) screens.

If cloud computing becomes key to 5G phones then the internal components could become minimal, aiding in the creation of super slim and even flexible and foldable devices. In fact, Samsung is already known to be preparing a foldable phone, possibly for launch as soon as 2019, but 5G could make such devices more mainstream.

If, on the other hand, future phones are packed full of power with super high-resolution screens, they could become ever larger. It’s anyone’s guess right now, but smartphones are sure to change in a big way with the arrival of 5G.