Last week, Samsung’s S10 5G was the first phone to be confirmed as an exclusive to Telstra’s upcoming 5G. Now its fellow South Korean rival has followed suit.
LG just unveiled its 5G V50 ThinQ at Mobile World Congress today, and Telstra will be getting it first.
[referenced url=”https://gizmodo.com.au/2019/02/first-optus-oppo-5g-phone-announced-but-it-has-to-share-with-telstra/” thumb=”https://gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/oppo-5g-410×231.jpg” title=”Optus’ First 5G Phone Announced (But It Has To Share With Telstra)” excerpt=”Over the weekend OPPO announced its first 5G phone at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Seeing as the event hasn’t officially kicked off yet, we’re expecting this to be one of the any 5G announcements this week. When it comes to the Australian market, the manufacturer will be launching its next gen device with both Telstra and Optus.”]
The 5G V50 ThinQ includes a Snapdragon 855 processor and a larger 4,000mAh battery – but that’s about it when it comes to upgraded specs from the V40.
It still only has 6GB RAM, 128GB internal storage and the same triple rear/dual front-facing camera setup. That’s not impressive, particularly in comparison to the upcoming S10 5G, which will have 8GB RAM, 256GB storage and a 4,500mAh battery.
It’s also going to be a little thicker, but that isn’t surprising for a first gen 5G device as they require a larger modem and cooling capabilities.
Although there is no release date for the 5G V50 ThinQ, or any 5G device, in Australia as yet, Telstra further reiterated at MWC that it will be in the first half of 2019.
So far Telstra has turned on 5G sites across selected areas of Melbourne,
Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane Adelaide, Perth, Hobart, Launceston, the Gold Coast and Toowoomba.
“Telstra is 5G-ready now. When we began rolling out 5G technology across Australia back in August, we also started working closely with the major mobile brands and leading manufacturers of 5G handsets,” said Telstra’s Chief Executive Officer Andrew Penn.
“This was so Telstra customers would not only be the first to access to 5G smartphones but also have a variety of products to choose from.”
Telstra also announced yesterday that OPPO’s upcoming 5G device will also appear on the Telsta network later this year, but it will be available on Optus as well.