The 5G revolution is happening at a rapid pace, mostly thanks to the expansion of the network in China. Local research agencies revealed 5 million 5G-enabled phones were sold in December, and the trend is going to rise even more.
Expectations are that more than 20% of the phones in the sub-CNY2,000 segment (that’s under $300) will have 5G speeds, and by 2021 a fifth of all smartphones in the world will support the next-generation networks.
Currently, most of the 5G-enabled phones are available in China and many of them are exclusive to the market. Phones like Huawei nova 6, Xiaomi Mi 9 Pro, vivo NEX 3, vivo iQOO Pro, and Honor V30 have 5G versions that can hardly be purchased outside of the local market due to various reasons. Huawei and Honor cannot offer Google services to markets where 5G is available, while vivo still hasn’t officially expanded to Europe, the Middle East or the United States.
Also the Oppo Reno 5G, the ZTE Axon 10 Pro 5G, the Galaxy S10 5G, and even the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G. They all can be purchased in the United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, UAE and other countries that have joined the 5G revolution.
The global smartphone market is expected to be on the rise in 2020, albeit by just 0.7%. Companies expect to sell over 150 million 5G-enabled phones in China, which will exceed the 4G shipments. Thanks to Mediatek and the launch of the affordable 5G chipset Dimensity 800, expectations are that even phones costing about $200 will have 5G by the end of Q4 2020.
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