Samsung just demoed its first 5G phone, and the device is so ugly that I’d need to invent a new synonym to describe how I feel about it. After all, no matter how hot 5G technology might be, a phone’s design is the first thing we notice. Thankfully, this contraption is just a prototype, meant to demo the new 5G wireless connectivity, as well as to foreshadow the great things to come to the Galaxy S10 line.
As you can see in the following image, the unnamed Samsung 5G phone has both a top bezel and a strange camera notch that’s placed on the right side of the screen.
Is this @samsung #5G demo phone a prototype #GalaxyS10? Check out the asymmetric notch. #SnapdragonSummit #FujifilmX30 pic.twitter.com/4vkeZTAT9g
— Myriam Joire (@tnkgrl) December 4, 2018
Here’s a second image, via Engadget, featuring the display turned on. Again, it’s incredibly ugly, and not something we want to see in commercial 5G phones in the future:
Samsung was very secretive about the device, although the handset was used to demo streaming 4K content over Verizon’s 5G network to a big-screen TV, and that’s all that matters at this time.
It’s unclear why Samsung chose this particular screen design for the 5G handset that was demoed at the Snapdragon Tech Summit in Hawaii. It’s likely Samsung used the prototype to test out various other components, including screens with strange shapes, not just the 5G connectivity.
Samsung already unveiled a bunch of Infinity screens at SDC18 earlier this months, including displays that may have U- and V-shaped notches at the top.
The Galaxy S10 is expected to feature an Infinity-O screen, which is a display that takes up almost the entire front side of the handset, save for tiny bezels, and a round or pill-shaped camera hole near the top. The 5G prototype in the images above is probably a precursor of the Galaxy S10.
Verizon and AT&T, meanwhile, have both confirmed they will launch 5G Samsung phones last year. Neither carrier specified actual product names, but it’s not unreasonable to assume the Galaxy S10 will be the first Samsung5G phone launching on both Verizon and AT&T.
