Although many 4G networks around the world are still far from being able to provide the maximum possible speeds that this standard can achieve, 5G seems to be off to a good start — at least for LG V50 ThinQ users on LG Uplus in South Korea's capital, Seoul.
The South Korean carrier has recently taken LG's latest offering for a spin in population-dense areas of Seoul such as Jongno and Magok. The benchmark used was the freely available — and quite popular — BenchBee, a mobile speed test that was designed to test the network traffic and quality of South Korean mobile connections. Since it only has a local server for testing, using this app while being located in other countries will not deliver accurate results.
The 1.1 Gbps download speed that LG Uplus managed to hit using the V50 ThinQ is quite impressive, although 5G networks can go much faster than that. Back in 2014, Samsung managed to set a 5G speed record of 7.5 Gbps, which was simply destroyed one year later by researchers at the 5G Innovation Centre who managed to hit 1 Tbps. Obviously, these were tests conducted in a lab environment that used custom-build equipment over a distance of only 100 meters.
Considering all the above, how impressive do you consider the result achieved by LG Uplus in Seoul using the LG V50 ThinQ? Do you hope to get a reasonably-priced, reliable 1 Gbps mobile connection in your country in less than three years?