So, we're traveling on the freeway.
We're going about 60 miles an hour and right now it's on LTE, so we can't test it.
[BLEEP] this.
Really.
[LAUGH] [BLEEP] this, man.
[LAUGH] Damn it.
[LAUGH] It's back on 5G.
Okay.
[LAUGH]
[MUSIC]
If you haven't heard of 5G by now, its the next generation Cellular technology that promises high speed mobile data.
In a bid to show up is 5G readiness.
Sprint invited a handful of media publications to go around town and test out its 5G network.
This is similar to what Marisa did in Chicago where we explored their 5G networks with a Moto C3 and the Galaxy S10 5G.
This time around though, we are in high and humid Dallas with another premium 5G phone.
Now, before we get into testing let's get a little bit more familiar with the device that we'll be with all day.
It's the LG V50 ThinQ.
We saw it in MWC.
So, I have it right now.
I'm gonna unbox it.
So, let's just take a look.
So in here you'll see a cloth and this is the LG V50 thin que.
It has a 6.4 inch LED display.
So it's quite large and it's LG and Sprints first 5G phone.
So you can see that it's, Emphasizing 5G ally here.
They really want you to know that it has the new network connected.
We're gonna unlock it here.
And Okay, it looks like it's already set up, which is pretty good.
We're gonna do a lot of testing on this.
Now.
It's a quits with a Snapdragon 855 processor and it uses a X 50 modem.
And inside Let's see what we have inside really quick.
You'll see your standard charger and USB see plug and it looks like LG is including a pair of earbuds as well.
The phone also has a four amp hour battery.
So that should be enough to get us through the day with five G's testing but who knows.
We'll make a note that right now is that 91% at the beginning of our day, so we'll check back in when we're done with our test to see what it will be like at the end.
Alright, so that's a really quick look at the visa.
See if you wanna know more about the phone itself, we have a hands on@cnet.com but other than that, let's get to testing.
first test we're gonna do it's actually gonna be on this button.
Sprint emphasizes how much wider and broader its network is compared to other competitors.
So we gonna actually hop inside and drive a small route around Dallas to see how well and consistent of the 50 phone could latch on to Sprint's 5g network on the go.
So let's hop inside.
So we're on the bus right now.
Going to try to talk underneath this Sprint guy, because he's talking right now.
But, what you'll see on the screen is the consistency and the speeds of Sprint's 5G network.
So on the left, you'll see it's dated.
Good download speeds and we've seen it top off as high as 700 megabits per second and then on the right you'll see our route where we're going around Dallas.
When it's green that's when we have 5G connectivity and when it drops off to 4G LTE it's supposed to turn black but so far we haven't seen any drop off.
The route has been green the entire time which is good because that shows that the network so far has been reliable.
[MUSIC]
So we're here at the village on the parkway and we're gonna do your standard speed test.
On the left is the LG V50, using Sprint's 5G network, and on the right is the LG G8 which is connected to Sprint's 4G LTE network.
So, let's go.
Right, pressing go.
And let's get started.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
Okay, so already you can see that the V50 is really, really fast.
Is already going to 100 megabits per second, and on the right over here the G8 is barely touching 7 megabits per second.
It's already really, really fast.
You'll see that the V50 has topped at 140 megabits per second, and the G8 has topped off at 6.61.
So, there's clearly a huge difference in speed.
[MUSIC]
So we did speed tests but let's do a real world test.
Let's download an app.
I chose PUBG.
It's a huge Game is one point eighty six gigs.
So we're going to see how quickly the 50 and the G8 downloads it.
So bear with me here.
It's a little awkward.
I'm going to try to install both of them.
When do you select Wi-Fi only because we're using the network and we're gonna time it.
Alright, 3,2,1 So just checking in.
We're a little over 50%, we're actually at 54% here on the V50.
Its been about a minute and 53 seconds.
Over here on the G8 you can see that it's barely downloaded, it's only been 2%.
So we can kind of Really exciting because this is just it is making downloading apps and videos that much faster on the 5G's.
So the V50 is approaching 96% on downloading PUBG and it's been about two minutes and 40 seconds and it's just in it, it's super fast and on the GE.
We're still at 2% the last time we checked in.
So the V50 is really fast, it's installing right now.
And yeah, this is an excellent phone.
I don't think we'll actually finish running both tests because we've got places to go.
But already we can tell at three minutes its barely made a dent and the V50 is already installing it.
In Chicago when we are testing horizon 5g network, you saw that we had to stand really close about a hundred to 300 feet away from it.
And that's because millimeter wave although very very first, you have to be very close to get all it's advantages.
But under [UNKNOWN] network, it's different the carrier built is 5g technology on top of it's already existing LTE network That means it could provide more coverage to more people, and it also means that you don't have to be tied to a node to access its 5G network.
But speeds might not be as fast as if you're using millimeter wave.
So we're at another testing site it's actually a car dealership and we've got to try our hand and downloading an episode off of Netflix.
It's an episode of Blue Planet II, we'll just do the first episode and let's start down with it.
So, on the left again, it's the B50 on 5G and on the right is the GA on LTE.
We actually ran this test early before and it ended around 45 seconds, this one is taking slightly longer, this is I think gonna finish up in about a minute.
So that's the range that we've been seeing in terms of results.
Still going.
Still much better than LTE, even though the results here are a little bit longer than last time, it's still pretty good.
It's 1 minute and 35 seconds.
Over here on the right, you'll see that it's not even a quarter of the way there.
Finished.
[MUSIC]
Now so many keep in mind is while the speed is impressively fast one of the first few people who are testing Sprint's 5G network.
In addition to Dallas Sprint is launching 5G in three other cities and it's supposed to cover 11.5 million people but again 11.5 million people aren't using the 5G network today so of course we're speeding right along.
So we're on our way to our next testing site but while we get there we wanted to see how 5G is again in a moving vehicle.
So let's start this now.
Right here and you'll have to forgive us.
It's a little bumpy here in this car but score right now it does have 5G connectivity and these are great.
It's at a hundred and twenty, a hundred and thirty megabits per second and.
And it looks like it might top off even 160.
And that's pretty good.
Before we ran this test, we see it actually, we saw the network cut in and out from 5g and LTE.
And that's because sprint hasn't blanketed the whole city with 5g just yet.
So right here We see that it topped off at 156 megabits per second, which isn't bad at all.
And again, that's when we're on the highway.
We're going about 30 40 miles an hour.
So that's pretty good.
[MUSIC]
So we're here at another testing site.
It's actually nearby a recreational center.
And it's test number.
I don't know So I've lost count.
It's been a long day and we're going to test how long it takes to download a full season on Amazon prime.
It's of the Marvelous Mrs.
Maizel.
You have to excuse me cuz I've never seen it.
I know it's really good and I'll try to watch it.
All right, we're at about the halfway point We're at episode four and the V50 has downloaded 41% of it.
And it's been only one minute and 56 seconds.
Meanwhile, the G8 is still on the pilot episode.
This time it is at 3%.
So some progress but not a lot.
Now we're on the last episode, episode eight, the V 50 is 86% into finishing it and it just finished Ot's just under four minutes at three minutes 59 seconds.
Meanwhile the G8 is still downloading the pilot at 12%.
After a full day of exploring 5G what are we left with?
Well first we started testing in earnest around 1pm.
It is now 8:49pm and the battery is at 17%.
I wanna say that that's not actually bad, that definitely last longer than a workday and we put this phone through a lot of tests.
We download tons of things.
The screen was about 50 to 80% brightness the whole time.
And it was also on standby for about the last three hours.
I also thought speeds were incredibly fast.
In some testing spots, we average 100 megabits per second.
In others, we got 400 megabits per second and that's really great.
I was also incredibly impressed with how fast the v50 downloaded a full season of a show in under five minutes.
Compared to Verizon though, we never came close to topping 1 gigabit.
The S10 5G also downloaded PUBG a full minute faster than we did.
But Sprint says it's not really going for peak performance or having the highest numbers Instead it wants to have an overall excellent experience for the average user.
And for the most part, that's what we got.
What I'd like the most about my experience was that I didn't have to be near in [UNKNOWN] or a tower to get connected to 5G.
We just drove to a designated area and we were already connected to the network.
The icon was also consistent throughout the whole time except for when we were driving on the highway when it was switching between LTE and 5G but again we never got speeds as fast as what we saw in Chicago with Horizon.
Personally I want to get a 5G phone right now.
The V50 cost over $1100 so the technology is still very expensive for users.
And 5G is only available in select cities.
This will change as the year progresses though, so I would wait off until the end of this year or until 2020.
Well, I don't know what kind of companies will be on the horizon for 5G and there's no guarantee that every company will have a positive impact I'm still excited that I got to see a glimpse of what it's capable of.
Plus who wanna welcome the ability to download troves of movies and shows on their phones in a matter of minutes.
