Xiaomi and Samsung go head to head with new phones in bargain-basement 5G battle
- Reference: 1599051487
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/09/02/xiaomi_and_samsung_5g_handsets/
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First, Samsung. Amid a slew of new personal tech devices announced at today's Life Unstoppable virtual event was the Samsung Galaxy A42 5G, which the chaebol said would be its cheapest next-gen device. That positions it south of the existing Galaxy [1]A51 5G and A90 5G, which cost £429 and £479 respectively.
Samsung did not formally announce pricing, but it's fair to say that the firm is aiming to fend off competition from the likes of Realme, OnePlus, and Motorola, which have aggressively pushed out attainable 5G phones in recent months.
The Galaxy A42 5G's specs haven't been revealed yet, although Samsung promised a quad-camera setup and a 6.6-inch OLED display. Imagery shared by the firm shows the selfie camera embedded within the screen within a teardrop notch.
Whoa-o BlackBerry, bam-ba-lam: QWERTY phone had a child. 5G thing's newly styled [2]READ MORE
And then there's Xiaomi, which just announced its latest entrant into the Mi 10 series family. Like Samsung, Xiaomi is keeping schtum about the precise details of this upcoming phone, including what it'll be called. However, Xiaomi told The Register that it is aiming for a sub-€300 price point, which would put it within reach of the latest [3]Moto G 5G Plus .
Specs-wise, Xiaomi plans to use the latest Snapdragon 7-series chipset, although further details about its capabilities are not yet known.
Xiaomi plans to formally unveil its upcoming Mi 10 phone in September, while the Galaxy A42 5G will likely see a release in the coming months.
These moves are indicative of greater differentiation within the 5G handset market. Once the preserve of flagship-level phones, 5G is becoming more and more attainable. That trend is certain to continue, bolstered by increased availability, and the continuing success of China's bargain-basement phone brands.
Further up the pricing food chain, there are more shifts expected later this year. Firstly, HMD Global is expected to release the Nokia 8.3, which boasts compatibility with all 5G bands. Meanwhile, Apple is expected to release its first 5G devices in the coming weeks, which will boost adoption further, and place increased pressure on carriers to expedite their rollout.
Rollouts of the requisite 5G networks [4]notwithstanding ... ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/18/samsung_slows_smartphone_upgrade_treadmill/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/19/new_blackberry_qwerty_phones/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/21/motorola_moto_g_5g_review/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/29/rootmetrics_uk_5g_stats/
[5] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Had a quick look for 5G coverage, appears to be fuck all fo the moment.
In 3 or 4 years it might be worth getting a 5G phone but not right now
Someone let El Reg know what "bargain basement" actually means, they seem confused.
Quite. With their combined cost, you could get a fairly decent second-hand car.
If there was some expectation that the phone might last long enough to be usable should 5G service ever become available at a price that does not require a mortgage, there might be a point in replacing my old Motorola-by-Lenovo phone. Samsung's offering might not be built in China which would be a small plus point for me, but a 24 month life expectancy for updates, no, thank you. I will stick with the crap Motorola which is already out of OS updates and just not put anything important on its increasingly slow frame.
5G ?
We have heard of it .
4G is between 1.5 and 4 Mbps on a good day in London.(Three network) (only 4 miles form the iconic Wembley stadium - go figure).
All the networks are waiting for Govt handouts after the Huawei shenanigans. Not that they have invested much in 5G infra anyways, except buy and hold the spectrum for the past 4 years and singing and dancing about it. Ground reality is totally different and seriously lacking. Call centres in customer services have no clue what 5G is. One tried to sell me a 5Ghz wifi (with 2.4 Ghz wifi) router as a 5G router ! HOw dumb can it get.
A con is being played on the masses.
And 5G is only another chip. Should not cost any more than regular phones. Except bragging rights.
Re: 5G ?
Yep, once they introduce new radios on the supply chain it gets added to every device. And the whole point of LTE was that this would be pretty easy to do: 5G radios work fine with 4G networks.
Unless you are buying a new phone because your old one is EOL, then I see no point in spending extra to get a 5G capable handset at the moment with barely any 5G network in the UK.
Better waiting another couple of year until the network is actually there and the tech is ubiquitous enough that even the proper bargain-basement phones that you can get for sub £100 have it.
Although personally I have no pressing need for those sort of download speeds that are advertised for 5G when I am mobile. Even the 4G speeds I currently get seem quick enough for the sort of web browsing and app usage that I do on the move.
Might as well wait...
Over here on this side of The Pond we've got SFA for a 5G availability, making getting a 5G phone a bit of a stupid idea.
Verizon offers the fastest 5G speeds (something like a few hundred MBps) but only to zero-point-zero-four percent of the nation. T-Mobile has much lower speeds (~50MBps IIRC) and only to 19% of North America. AT&T had speeds even worse & only to 10% of the U.S.A... So unless you lived in one of the few spots that had it at all, you were better off sticking with a 4G/4GLTE unit & getting a signal at all.
I'd like 5G with the highest speeds possible, but until the various carriers pull their heads out of their asses & actualy deliver what our tax dollars have paid for a zillion times over, there's no point to buying a 5G device.