This year will witness the 5G technology go mainstream. While many smartphone manufacturers are working on a 5G-compatible smartphone, none of them have officially launched a 5G smartphone.
While OnePlus and Samsung are said to be among the first to launch their 5G smartphones, Huawei has also confirmed that the company’s 5G smartphone will be launched soon. This puts the rumors to rest which suggested that Huawei could unveil its 5G smartphone at MWC 2019 in Barcelona.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Huawei’s chairman Hu Houkun (aka Ken Hu) confirmed that the company will be launching its 5G smartphone in June this year. He also announced that the company has deployed 5G networks in 10 countries and will soon deploy in 20 more countries.
The announcement regarding the company’s 5G smartphone comes at a time when Huawei is going through difficulties. Several countries have blocked Huawei from working on their network infrastructure because of national security concerns. Last month, Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada, at the request of the United States, on charges related to the violation of American sanctions on Iran.
Hu Koukun also said that this year will be crucial for the tech sector as technologies such as the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain are now reaching critical application stages.
It appears that South Korea could be one of the first markets to receive Huawei’s first 5G smartphone since it’s the only country along with the U.S. where commercialization of 5G network is expected to happen by the first half of 2019. In the second half of 2019, the 5G networks may get commercialized in Japan, Chin, and Europe.
The 5G smartphone from OnePlus is confirmed to be powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 855 octa-core 7nm processor. The phone, which will kick-off a new lineup for the company, will be priced around $100 more than the OP6T and is expected to launch by the end of May this year.
Read More: Xiaomi confirms MWC 2019 February 24 event; Likely to announce its flagship Xiaomi Mi MIX 3 5G
Apart from Samsung and OnePlus, Xiaomi has already introduced its first 5G-compatible handset — Mi MIX 3, which will be released later this year. Another Chinese smartphone manufacturer Oppo recently demonstrated a working 5G smartphone prototype.
