Samsung tipped its hand yet again, revealing another key piece of its 2019 road map. As it did with the foldable phone a few weeks back, the company will be revealing a proof of concept this week at the annual Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit in Maui.
Details around things like specs are likely to be pretty light once again, though Samsung and mobile partner Verizon are shooting for a release sometime in the first half of next year. Qualcomm is a key hardware partner here as well, producing the Snapdragon X50 5G NR modem and antenna modules via the Snapdragon Mobile Platform.
The news finds Samsung joining a handful of companies promising to deliver 5G smartphones in 2019, including OnePlus and Motorola — though the latter will be accomplishing this via Moto Mod. Samsung’s chief competitor Apple, meanwhile, is not expected to embrace the technology until 2020, according to the latest rumors.
Samsung has already publicly embraced the technology, showing off a 5G home router way back at Mobile World Congress 2017. Our corporate bosses at Verizon, meanwhile, have been demonstrating home 5G service in a smattering of U.S. cities, including Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Sacramento.