‘Great Secret Features’ and ‘Nasty Surprises’ are my regular columns investigating the best features / biggest problems hidden behind the headlines.
The bearer of this bad news is The Bell, a consistently reliable site from Samsung’s home country of South Korea. In a new report, it confirms Samsung will limit the 5G capabilities built into Galaxy S10 to just one limited edition model of which production will be “negligible”.
The Bell specifies this as a maximum of 2 million units out of 40 million Galaxy S10 models produced in 2019. Pricing of the Galaxy S10+, the most expensive model, is also expected to be almost $1,000 so the 5G limited edition is likely to make it the most expensive mass-market phone Samsung has ever released.
And this carries significant repercussions.
While 5G networks will only start rolling out towards the end of this year, and certainly won’t be widespread when the Galaxy S10 launches in early 2019, they will scale rapidly as carriers battle one another to boast who has the best coverage. Given the Galaxy S10 will be a circa-$1,000 multi-year investment, buying such an expensive phone next year without 5G seems foolhardy.
