CES 2019: 5G Under Glass

News Analysis Dan Jones, Mobile Editor 1/11/2019

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 company said it was connected to 28GHz 5G at around 1-Gbit/s at the show.

The device was connected to a remote radio head (RRH), streaming via servers on-site:

The 5G radio head was located just above the 5G modem.

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.)

The Nighthawk at front and center in the cabinet. Recall that AT&T has said that the device will available to the wider public in the Spring for $500 a pop.

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.)

Qualcomm also a number of 5G protypes from vendors like OPPO and Xiao

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.)

Samsung is supposed to unveil commercial 5G devices later in the first half of this year.

— Dan Jones, Mobile Editor, Light Reading