COMING SOON…

The 5G phones you can expect to see in 2020 from every big player

APPLE

Apple has so far been quiet about its 5G iPhone plans, but it always plays its cards close to its chest. If the rumour mill is to be believed, at least some of the September 2020 iPhones will have 5G on board, and it would be a surprise if Apple waited until 2021 to introduce the next-gen technology.

OPPO

The Oppo Reno was one of the best-specced 5G phones we saw through the course of last year, and that bodes well for what’s to come in 2020. Part of the same family of phone makers as OnePlus, it’s likely that Oppo’s 5G phones for this year will be a little more experimental and unusual than the rest.

LG

LG has already put its flag(ship) in the ground in terms of 5G, and is expected to introduce the next-gen connectivity to the LG G9 ThinQ phone – a handset that could be with us as early as February. LG isn’t shy of experimenting with form factors and specs, so it might have some 5G surprises lined up for 2020 too.

SAMSUNG

Samsung has put out more 5G phones than anyone else, and that trend will continue through 2020. Pretty much every phone Samsung unveils this year – including the Galaxy S20 and the Galaxy Note 20 – will come with 5G models as options, and indeed there may be more 5G variants than 4G ones.

HONOR

Honor usually puts out handsets that are more affordable and aimed at a younger audience. Having dabbled with 5G at the end of 2019 with the View 30 Series, we definitely expect to see some mainstream 5G Honor phones released during 2020 – though we doubt there’ll be a huge number of them.

XIAOMI

Xiaomi will want to continue its move into western markets during the course of 2020, and that means putting out more 5G phones – the company has already said it will put out at least 10(!) 5G phones this year, including the Xiaomi Mi 10 due in February, and many of them should be relatively affordable too.

ONEPLUS

Having dipped its toes into the 5G waters in 2019, OnePlus is likely to go further in 2020, and the people in the know are already tipping 5G to be available on one of the OnePlus 8 models due in the first half of the year. Expect OnePlus to still offer a more affordable flagship phone without the extra 5G, though.

HUAWEI

From the software side, Huawei’s phones have taken a hit with its ongoing ban from using Google products, so expect the Chinese company to go all-in on hardware this year – that means more 5G phones in 2020. The P40 Pro should be the first to appear around March time, and both 4G and 5G models are likely.

MOTOROLA

Motorola doesn’t have a 5G phone yet, but it does have a 5G mod for the Z3 and Z4 handsets. The first full 5G Moto phone should appear in 2020, though it won’t be the foldable Razr, which is 4G only – if that proves to be a hit then an updated next-gen v2 Razr with 5G on board seems like a slam dunk.