5G speed tests mark another breakthrough, this time on Sprint with LG V50 phone

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LG-V50-double screen 40

LG V50 is a 5G phone, exclusive to Sprint, and also sports a second attachment to the screen.

Katie Collins / CNET

After a difficult start, Verizon, the largest wireless service provider in the United States, showed the blazing speeds that the 5G is capable of. It's now Sprint's turn. In an effort to prove that it was ready for 5G, the country's fourth-largest network operator used its network in the Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and Kansas City areas. In the coming weeks, Sprint plans to launch service in parts of Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix and Washington, DC The company says its approximately 2,180 square miles of coverage make it the largest 5G network in the country .

Before the launch of May 31 LG V50 – a unique 5G phone distinguished by its second screen attachment – Sprint allowed CNET to try the phone and its 5G coverage in Dallas. We submitted the LG V50 to numerous tests in several locations to determine what customers could expect from the service and whether or not they were considering buying again.

Sprint is the latest company to have clung to the excitement of 5G. In perfect conditions, the 5G will allow us to download movies on our phones in seconds or broadcast AR / VR games without lag. Beyond the phones, he could revolutionize entire industries, autonomous cars to remote medical procedures. The 5G however is still going on and it will still take years to reach these levels of speed, coverage or reliability. But like other mobile operators, Sprint wants to lead the way by offering its customers a new generation experience.


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Is 5G coming to a city near you?


2:50

This is what some of my first tests looked like:

Test: download apps and games

We used the speedtest.net app to compare the 5G speeds on the LG V50 to 4G LTE on the LG G8. The average download speed was 109 megabits per second over six trials, compared to 3.74 megabits per second on the G8. It's impressive, but not as fast as what we saw on Verizon's 5G network earlier this month. which has exceeded one gigabyte per second. Note, however, that Verizon's millimeter-wave network is faster but its range is shorter, with Sprint's mid-band spectrum enabling more people on the network at a time.

We also determined how long it would take to download PUBG Mobile, a 1.86 GB file. The V50 took only three minutes and 31 seconds to download and install the game, while the G8 on 4G LTE only 73 MB (3% of the file) of the game was installed during the same period.

Finally, we downloaded the first episode of Blue Planet 2 on Netflix. The 50-minute episode took 49 seconds to be fully downloaded on the V50. The G8 on the 4G LTE had not even been a quarter of the episode download during the same period.

Test: 5G on the go, in a bus

While browsing Dallas on a bus, we examined the speed and regularity of the Sprint 5G. We watched the speed of a V50 data on screens near our seats. On the left of the screen, we observed the download rate, which we saw up to 700 Mbps here. Occasionally, the rate drops to 4G when the device starts a new cycle during testing, but Sprint says that when a user undergoes a transfer, he will notice no discernible difference. On the right, our road in green in 5G. When we switch to LTE, the route is supposed to blacken, but we have not seen a switch yet, which is good because it means the network is reliable.

Speeds are not as fast as those of 1 gigabit-plus that CNET publisher, Jessica Dolcourt, has seen in Chicago with Verizon, but that remains respectable. Do not forget that Verizon uses what is called a millimeter wave spectrum or higher frequency radio waves that offer incredible speeds but limited range.

5G Landscape in the United States

Our test event in Dallas is similar to both hosted by Verizon in April and may when he introduces its 5G network in Chicago and Minneapolis to varying degrees of success.

While Sprint is now aware of the 5G, the roadmap aspect is unclear if T-Mobile ends its $ 26.5 billion merger this the FCC approved last week. On its own, T-Mobile plans to launch 5G services in 30 US cities in the second half of 2019. The Ministry of Justice the two companies to create another mobile operator maintain the status quo of four players.

Sprint's 5G is based on mid-band radio waves at 2.5 GHz, offering a good mix of speed and coverage. I will test the network with LG's first 5G phone: the premium LG V50 ThinQ, which includes the Qualcomm Snapdragon X50 5G modem (identical to the Galaxy S10E 5G). I'm going to browse various places around Dallas to test the speed of data on Sprint. Stay alert as I update this item throughout the day. (For a more in-depth dive into 5G-related terms, read CNET FAQ on 5G.)

Editor's Note: This is a story in development. Check back for updates while we perform data testing throughout the day.

The story was published at 7:30 in the morning.

Update, 8:57 PT: To clarify that 5G networks are being activated. 9:33: Adds the first results of the speed tests. 11:33: Test added tweet comparing 5G to 4G LTE. 15h27 PT: Addition of the test section "On the go".

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