CES 2019: 5G Under Glass

The motto for vendors displaying 5G devices at this week's CES show in Las Vegas appeared to be: "Look, but don't touch." (See CES Is Only a 5G Scene-Setter for MWC.)
In fact, only Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) had a live 5G reference design modem on the show floor. Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM) and Samsung Corp. had 5G devices but they were kept firmly under glass.
Intel's unnamed 28GHz reference design was hanging out at its booth:
The device was connected to a remote radio head (RRH), streaming via servers on-site:
Qualcomm had a brace of devices on-site, but all were kept in glass cabinets -- notably, even the Netgear Inc. (Nasdaq: NTGR) Nighthawk 5G, which is the only device currently offered for AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T)'s commercial 5G service. (See AT&T's Nighthawk 5G: Potential Download Could Cover a Wide Range of Speeds.)

Qualcomm said last January that it was signing contracts to sell Chinese vendors $2 billion of 4G and 5G components over three years, contracts that seem to be bearing fruit now. (See Qualcomm Lines Up Chinese Wave for 5G Smartphones.)
Samsung took the same approach as Qualcomm with its 5G device enclosed in a glass box! (See 2019: Samsung Gets Busy With 5G in US.)
— Dan Jones, Mobile Editor, Light Reading