What is 5g? How it works?

What is 5G:

For the third year running, Qualcomm flew me to Hawaii for the annual Snapdragon summit, where, for the third year running, the next-generation smartphone and laptop chips were announced, and a parade of executives proclaimed that 5G is here. But this year is different, because it's actually true. On December 6th, T-Mobile made it official by flipping the switch on a nationwide deployment of 5G that covers 200 million people. But what does that really mean? And more importantly, should you care enough to spend money on it? Well I took a 5G phone for a Maui test drive to find out.

(electronic music) 5G can be confusing because it's not a single technology. It can mean different things depending, mostly on what carrier you use. Take Verizon. The 5G network that it's pushing the hardest, is built brand-new, from the ground up. And it delivers the kind of incredible data speeds that let you download a whole season of a TV show in minutes. You can learn more about that network in my Chicago and Providence 5G test drive videos, which will also show you just how unimpressed I was with them. The reason? To reach those crazy data speeds, network and phone need to operate at very high frequencies, called high band, or millimeter wave. And those waves can't penetrate obstacles very well. 

Lemme illustrate what that means with a real-world example. Remember when Verizon said this week that it was the first carrier to deploy 5G on a beach? - [Presenter] To have 5G on a beach? Just go right outside. - Our search for millimeter wave reception has brought us to the kiddie pool. I'm not happy about it. I went to that beach with The Unlockr's David Cogen, whose borrowed Samsung review unit did indeed latch on to the signal from one of the two 5G nodes on the roof of the resort here. And, did we get amazing speeds? Absolutely. But, to get them, we had to hold still. Putting anything between us and that node, palm trees, umbrellas, our own bodies, would interrupt the signal. Hmmm. - Hmm, sad. - Hmm, millimeter wave, everybody. Now T-Mobile had some fun with that reality with athe coverage maps that handed out with our phones here on Maui. This is T-Mobile's asserted 5G coverage in Hawaii. 

And um, this, is Verizon's. Corporate shade, gotta love it. So then why was the U.S.'s second smallest, nationwide carrier able to flip a switch and suddenly claim 5G coverage over 200 million people? Well, because again, 5G isn't just one thing. While Verizon emphasizes its 5G build out way up in the millimeter wave spectrum at 28-39 gigahertz, T-Mobile's nationwide focus is way down the scale, at 600 megahertz. In terms of cellular communications, that's some of the lowest down real estate you can get, which is great for penetrating walls and keeping you connected, even indoors. The minute I powered up my OnePlus 7T Pro McLaren review device, I had a solid 5G connection that barely wavered as I meandered all over the resort. 5G, hello! See, just like Verizon, T-Mobile had a 5G cell site right on the roof. So I took an Uber to the neighboring town of Kihei, little ways up the coast, to see how the signal held up in as close to the real world as I could get. And while the McLaren did occasionally fall back to 4G as it connected to cell sites that haven't yet been upgraded, more often than not, when I looked up at the status bar, it was a 5G indicator glowing back at me. 

So what's the catch? Well, the same 600 megahertz radio waves that are so great at penetrating walls, are not so great at giving you fast data speeds. Even T-Mobile itself estimates only an average of 20% faster download speeds on its low-band 5G, compared to its 4G network. And in my testing alongside Andrew Martonik's 4G T-Mobile phone, well, sometimes 5G was faster. And, sometimes not. I put the phone to some real-world use tests, like downloading Spotify playlists and sure enough, it didn't really feel all that different. These are just download speeds, by the way. Upload speeds were always lower than on a comparable 4G phone. And due to a firmware issue that won't be addressed until 2020, mobile hotspot still works over 4G. So, if you're like me and you have visions of pairing your laptop to your superfast 5G phone and uploading big files from the road, well, give it some time. My initial conclusion on T-Mobile 5G and the McLaren OnePlus 7T Pro after a quick word from my sponsor. 

If you use free public WiFi a lot, your data bill is probably in good shape. But, your security might not be. That's why you should encrypt your connection with a VPN like today's sponsor. Surfshark VPN protects you while you're sharing a public network and it also helps when traveling to countries with internet censorship, which can limit access to tools like Google and YouTube. Just open Surfshark, hit the quick connect button, and presto! You can browse anywhere as if you were back at home. This also comes in handy for streaming geo-restricted movies, or TV shows. Try Surfshark now at the link below and use promo code MRMOBILE. You'll get 83% off a two year subscription and three additional months for free. Thanks to Surfshark for sponsoring this video. So today, 5G is kind of a choose-your-pain game. Millimeter wave offers bursts of incredible speed in a handful of tiny areas, while lowband offers great coverage, but speeds that kinda feel like 4G. Now, this doesn't mean that 5G is vaporware. When it's ready, it really is going to enable a whole new generation of connected devices, and it'll help solve many of the congestion and speed issues we're seeing on today's networks. But, getting to that future is going to be immensely complicated. 

It's one of the biggest reasons T-Mobile has so aggressively pursued a merger with Sprint. Only by combining their spectrum holdings can they build out the necessary coverage across low, mid, and high bands to give us a real 5G experience that matters. I'm generally against mergers that decrease competition, and I fully expect prices to go up once this one inevitably goes through. But I can kinda see their argument. And speaking of money, while you don't have to pay more per month to use T-Mobile 5G, you'll need to drop $900 on this McLaren edition OnePlus 7T Pro, or $1,300 on the Galaxy Note 10+ 5G to use it. Each represents about a $2-300 premium over its non-5G equivalent. I'll be doing some more testing on T-Mobile's 5G network in New York next week, and sharing impressions on my Instagram and Twitter channels, stay tuned for that. But, from what I've seen so far in Maui, my conclusion seems unlikely to change. 5G might technically be here, but it's not worth you spending more money on it. 

Not yet. This video was produced at the 2019 Snapdragon Summit in Maui, and Qualcomm provided travel, lodging, and meals to some members of the media, including Mr. Mobile. T-Mobile also, provided the OnePlus 7T Pro McLaren edition review sample on a one-week loan basis. And neither company was offered an early look at this content, or copy approval, though, that means they're seeing it for the first time right alongside you. Please subscribe to theMrMobile on YouTube if that's the kind of video you'd like to see more of. Until next time, thanks for watching! And stay mobile my friends.