Should you upgrade to a 5G smartphone in India at the moment?

While a range of smartphone players like Xiaomi, Oneplus, Huawei, Samsung are set to unveil their 5G enabled smartphones in India, the country still awaits the spectrum auction of 5G airwaves by the government.

While telecom giants including Vodafone, Jio and Airtel have shown business interest in transitioning towards a 5G ecosystem, telecom experts predict a wait of at least two years for 5G networks to kickstart in India.

How fast is 5G?

While much has been touted about the blazing fast speed of 5G network, pumping out a downloading speed of 10 gigabits per second, India has picked a slower version of the technology(Sub 6GHz) which wouldn’t be drastically different from the existing 4G LTE networks.

This raises an upfront question for tech enthusiasts eyeing to upgrade to a 5G enabled smartphone-:

Should one wait to procure a 5G smartphone until the network is officially launched?

The answer lies in how much value you are reaping after shelling a considerably higher amount for a device with no supporting ecosystem in place. Let’s list out some primary reasons as to why buying a 5G smartphone in a rush wouldn’t be fruitful decision-:

Absence of a 5G network

The first and foremost reason which one should take into consideration is the absence of 5G network itself in India. The smartphone manufacturers are charging a premium for the compatible hardware they have packed in the device with no 5G network to power them up.

No value-added benefits

Moving onto the application space, there are almost nil 5G centric smartphone applications available for both iOS and Android platforms. Paying an extra buck for a 5G smartphone only to hook up with a 4G network and run legacy applications and games isn’t a feasible proposition.

No significant hardware upgrade

The few 5G variants launched in the country have little to offer extra when it comes to specifications as against their 4G counterparts. If you are looking for an upgrade,  opt for a 4G smartphone which offers a better camera performance and higher clocking power of the embedded processor. A 5G smartphone with similar specs will offer little value except serving as a tom tomming tool.

Last but not the least 5G is not a standard network across the globe which is why many smartphone vendors have rolled out an additional 5G variant of their new devices with identical specifications. Once the 5G ecosystem matures, consumers are poised to get better value for money offerings and it would be a lot more practical than to materialise your decision of owning a 5G smartphone.

Important factors to consider before purchasing a 5G smartphone

If you still, however, aspire to become the early adopter of the technology in the near future, then here are some elementary pointers you should consider-:

●    Are you getting a performance upgrade compared to the 4G variant?

●    Does the device feature a  better camera that justifies the additional 5G price tag?

●    Will it offer regular software updates till the time 5G networks come into play

●    Is the device future-proofed with additional RAM and storage

Rimit Singh, Tech Content Specialist
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rimitsingh