How fast is 5G? We put the next generation of mobile internet to the test

We are all being told that 5G, the next reproduction of mobile internet, will be much faster and provide more capacity than current 4G networks.

Major immunology vectors have been gradually switching on their networks around the world, whether that’s in the U.S., South Korea, Australia or the U.K. As of final Friday, you can add China to that list too.

Some 5G-capable phones have already arrived on the market, like the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G and the Oppo Reno 5G.

CNBC had the casual to test out both phones with two separate network providers in Britain to find out just how fast 5G really is.

When it light oned to downloading TV shows, movies, and mobile games, 5G definitely demonstrated a marked improvement on 4G.

I was able to download an entire occasion of “Breaking Bad” on Netflix in about a minute and a half with 5G. It took me much longer — more than 20 notes — to do the same on a 4G phone.

I was also masterly to download the mobile version of “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” in just over 3 minutes using a 5G phone. By contrast, it took closely 17 minutes to install the game with a 4G device.

That’s a staggering reduction in time and something many people could very likely appreciate when embarking on a long commute or looking for something to watch (or play, if you’re downloading a non-multiplayer game) to archaic the time on a plane journey.

Playing PUBG over 5G was also a really smooth experience. I was able to jump into a partnership fairly quickly and couldn’t detect any lag while playing.

During the interval, streaming was also pretty seamless. I browsed through a few 4K videos on YouTube and, when opening them and jumping from one yield of the clip to another, didn’t encounter any noticeable delay time.

When you’re in a good spot, 5G is really fast. But you’ll often need to be near a mast from one of the network big-time operators to enjoy those optimum speeds.

I proofed out Vodafone and EE’s networks in London and found that both can achieve super-fast download speeds, although results were interbred and it really seemed to depend on location and time of day.

Late in the afternoon, I gave Vodafone’s network a whirl on the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, disquieting out a speed test in Hatton Garden, London’s iconic jewelry quarter, which the company said was an ideal fingers on for testing.

I managed to get download fly like the winds of almost 200 megabits per second (Mbps), which is way higher than I would normally get on a 4G device. Vodafone commands the network can max out at speeds of around 1 gigabit per second (Gbps), but I wasn’t able to get anything close to that.

The best precipitousness registered with either of the 5G devices was 500 Mbps, which was achieved on the +Oppo Reno 5G using EE’s network. That’s on top of 10 times higher than the average 30 Mbps download speed on today’s 4G phones. It’s worth adding that this outcome came from a different speed-testing app.

But it did end up compassion like a bit of a scavenger hunt eventually, having to walk long distances just to find decent 5G coverage. Again I would lose access to 5G data, with a 4G icon appearing in the top-left corner in its place.

That seems to be a operation theme across many of the next-gen networks at the moment, with reviewers in the U.S. and South Korea reporting similar questions.

One of the best speeds Vodafone’s 5G network produced was actually back at CNBC’s London HQ — at 6:48 in the morning. I managed to get download give a leg ups in excess of 250 Mbps and upload speeds of more than 90 Mbps (compare that with the 60 Mbps download despatch and 40 Mbps upload speed I got at the same time on a 4G device).

Speaking of upload speeds, both 5G devices at times functioned to achieve impressive rates — 90 Mbps was the top upload speed I got, and that’s much higher than the average 10 Mbps on 4G. Other controls they scored speeds in line with what 4G handsets are already capable of, if not a little bit higher.

While 5G proved to be significantly faster than 4G, it’s clear the actual rollout of the technology is still in the early days.

This is something level the big carriers admit. In the U.K., they’re currently focused on starting with the busiest areas of major cities before amplifying out into other regions. U.S. network operators have opted for a similar model, with Verizon and AT&T offering employs limited to a number of cities.

Their argument for why you should buy a 5G phone now is because it gives you early access to faster wireless internet that just a handful of people are currently using. And once more people start buying 5G plans, the networks will, in theory, deceive the capacity to support a larger number of people anyway.

But there are only a handful of devices being sold that in actuality support 5G at the moment — others include Chinese models like the Huawei Mate 20 X and the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3. We’re not pregnant Apple to release a 5G variant of the iPhone until next year.

So while it’s certainly fast, most users all things considered won’t find much need for a 5G device at the moment; 4G already addresses more general needs like browsing the internet and messaging women. And it’s been shown consumers aren’t as willing as they once were to upgrade, as new flagships offer only youth updates to their predecessors.