Sprint's First 5G Smartphones Coming to Some Big Cities
Sprint’s first two 5G devices are the LG V50 ThinQ 5G and HTC 5G Hub and they launch in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and Kansas City May 31, said the carrier Thursday. They roll out to Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix and…
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Washington in the next few weeks. On a news-media tour in New York last week, a company spokesperson told us at launch, the carrier plans to cover about 1,000 square miles initially in its 5G footprint. Commenting on the different flavors of 5G carriers have promoted, the spokeswoman said, “We’re launching the real 5G, not fake 5G.” Data speeds will improve by 100 times, she said, with “much improved latency times” enabling vehicle-to-vehicle communication for autonomous driving, remote surgery and mobile gaming. The HTC hub, a Sprint exclusive at launch, is targeted to homes and small businesses, and can enable non-5G devices such as laptops, tablets, phones and TVs to “experience the speed of 5G,” delivering “smooth” 4K video streaming, “virtually buffer-free” gaming, and advanced 4G LTE hotspot connectivity for up to 20 users. As an entertainment device, it can replace a Wi-Fi router and eliminate unnecessary cables, said Sprint. It’s capable of delivering up to 60 frames per second 4K video on compatible TVs and supports Android and PC games.