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5G smartphones from LG, Samsung could launch in February, retail in March
- A new report out of South Korea suggests both LG and Samsung will launch 5G smartphones at Mobile World Congress in February.
- The same report contends that those 5G phones will then hit store shelves in March.
- If this is true, Samsung would potentially launch four Galaxy S10 smartphones in the span of only a week or so.
Recently, The Korea Herald published a new report suggesting we might not have to wait very long before we see 5G smartphones from both Samsung and LG.
According to the report, both companies could launch their respective 5G phones at Mobile World Congress 2019, which starts up at the end of February. The report also contends that those smartphones will then be available for purchase a short time later in March.
The Korea Herald article cites “industry sources” for this information.
If this information is true, it would represent a very interesting strategy for Samsung, in particular. According to earlier reports, Samsung likely will launch three non-5G models of the Samsung Galaxy S10 at a Samsung event in late February, about a week before Mobile World Congress. It seems strange that Samsung would launch three Galaxy S10 models and then only a week later launch another, as we expect the Samsung 5G smartphone to carry the Galaxy S10 badge.
LG releasing a smartphone at MWC 2019 makes a little more sense, although it would represent a pretty quick turnaround for a company with a struggling mobile division.
Either way, if we will be able to buy these smartphones in March it will be interesting to see how well sales are for the devices, considering there likely won’t be a stable, nationwide 5G network anywhere in the world at that point. There could be very select areas of a few cities up and online by then, but consumers would by and large be buying these hypothetical 5G smartphones with the expectation that they wouldn’t reach their full potential until at least the middle of 2019, possibly even later.
What do you think? Would you buy a 5G smartphone in March knowing you wouldn’t have access to a 5G network until months later? Let us know your opinions in the comments.
NEXT: All you need to know about every 5G phone confirmed so far