At MWC we were told that we would see the first OnePlus device to include 5G connectivity. Well, that kind of turned out to be true as we have seen a OnePlus 5G prototype device that was connected to a 5G network and streaming games from the cloud streaming service Shadow. Such is the secrecy surrounding this device we have only had a glimpse of the case in which the handset is hidden within. We wonder what lies beneath the white plastic sarcophagus. It’s worth pointing out that OnePlus did not have an official stand at MWC 2019. But like many other OEMs using the Qualcomm X50 5G modem, they had a place on the dedicated Qualcomm stand to showcase the new superfast connectivity that has dominated almost all of MWC in 2019. Subscribe to the official 9to5Google YouTube channel The thing is, that although the showcase had the device available to view, OnePlus is keeping their cards close to their chest with most of the design beyond the display. We saw a handset leak that potentially had a slider-like design and this could very well be what we got a glimpse of at the Qualcomm stand at MWC. Even during a period where the handset appeared to have some issues with overheating or losing connection — that will happen when running on an 11-hour continuous gaming loop — I was also unable to catch a glimpse of the handset when OnePlus employees rushed to quickly reset the smartphone before placing back in the protective white encasing. This OnePlus 5G handset was simply running Ace Combat 7, yet it still managed to draw crowds, such is the appetite for any OnePlus hardware no matter the real lack of detail. In operation, it seemed to work well, but wasn’t perfect. However, I will put that down to a few variables at play that could have caused things to go less than smooth. You could see the several periods of lag and beyond that, the Xbox One controller lost connection a few times during the time I observed the device and the OnePlus rep playing the game. The OnePlus 5G handset was connected to the cloud gaming platform Shadow via a server in Amsterdam and appeared to have almost zero latency. Mobile gaming will be sold as one of the core advantages of a 5G-connected system. OnePlus has clearly understood the potential that offsetting the internal hardware in favor of connection could potentially enable savings to be made in the actual mobile hardware moving forward. We still expect future devices to include top-tier specifications though. The game streaming platform acts simply as a bridge between the OnePlus handset and a much more powerful gaming rig that does all of the graphical and processing grunt work. Android games would be relegated to mere side stores if you were serious about mobile gaming. It could also be the ultimate link between your static Steam library and your mobile device all thanks to super high-speed, low latency connections. You could argue that this is currently possible with 4G connections and networks. But while it is currently possible, there is a distinct degradation in quality and with 4G networks being much more spotty than 5G will potentially be, this could be a massive area of growth for the mobile gaming space. That said, the Shadow service has been designed to work on current 4G networks so do we really need 5G for this to work on current devices? Maybe not. We do know some of the internal specs of this handset, as we know for certain that it was utilising the Snapdragon 855 chipset and the Qualcomm X50 5G modem. Beyond that, other specs remain a mystery. It will be interesting if OnePlus does opt to go down the gaming phone route, with partnerships with streaming platforms such as Shadow once this device is finally unveiled. Previously, OnePlus’ CEO confirmed that this handset will likely cost up to $200 or $300 more than a 4G variant. Are you willing to pay a premium for connection to a currently almost non-existent network? Personally, I’m not sure I would. Let us know in the comments section below if you have any questions or if you are excited for the upcoming 5G OnePlus device. More from MWC 2019: FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More. Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news:<doc-sep>BARCELONA — At the Qualcomm booth at MWC 2019 there’s a bunch of 5G-related goodies but the standout has to be OnePlus, who was on hand to show off its 5G credentials, with a prototype handset. OnePlus' first 5G phone is expected to have a June release date in Europe, but according to USA Today, the phone is not coming to the U.S. And it really is prototype. The phone was behind glass and wrapped in plastic. So this wasn’t an official reveal like some we have seen at the show. But that doesn't mean that there wasn't enough on display to speculate. MORE: Most Anticipated Phones of 2019 While it's difficult to gauge what kind of handset it will be, it's clear that the 5G OnePlus has a 21:9 screen and no notch; he game playing on the device looked incredible. There was no sign of front-facing camera either, or none that we could see — this is one slim-looking phone that was all screen. It was also running Snapdragon 855 and the 5G came courtesy of the X50 modem. It wasn't just sitting pretty at the booth, but there to highlight the massive potential 5G has to change your mobile experience. To showcase this, OnePlus had a demo of some pretty seamless cloud gaming. The game on display was a flight simulator called Ace Combat 7, and I played it through OnePlus' mystery device, using a gamepad, which was live-streamed on a big screen. The game was pretty graphically intense, but streamed through the phone it seemed like a decent, near seamless experience. Yes, 5G is all about bringing superfast download and upload speeds to your phone, but the game actually only needed around 25 Mbps to stream. The big difference, which is a major (One)plus point of 5G, is the low latency and that was really impressive. Interestingly, the game was only a 20MB download on the phone — the majority of the processing grunt was being done in the cloud. The Xbox controller I used matched what was on the screen beat for beat, meaning that 5G is actually staying true to its promise. If this is the OnePlus 7 (given it was literally shrouded in secrecy, then it may well be) then it is shaping up to be a truly great phone.<doc-sep>OnePlus promised us a 5G handset this year. At Mobile World Congress this week, the company kind of, sort of delivered. Unlike the sea of other 5G devices unveiled at the show, however, the company’s offering is still very much in the prototype phase — like, behind protective glass with all of the interesting bits obscured, as it isn’t officially official. The product appeared at Qualcomm’s booth this week, since OnePlus’ presence at the show has been mostly limited to closed-door events. For the chipmaker, it was an opportunity to show yet again how ubiquitous its tech has become in the vast sea of Android devices. “At Qualcomm Technologies’ booth, OnePlus simulated a futuristic setting of 5G cloud gaming where players would only need a smartphone and a gamepad,” Qualcomm explains. “Through the powerful capabilities of cloud processing as well as the throughput and responsiveness of 5G, players can play large sized games online that are generally only playable after downloading onto the PC first. Utilizing Snapdragon elite gaming features and optimizations, players were able to experience high definition and low latency cloud gaming like never before.” Based on past release schedules, we can likely expect OnePlus to officially debut its next handset in the summer. Past release cycles have also seen a point upgrade later in the year, as well, though the company has been shifting things around a bit, as it continues to grow and figure out where it best fits in the broader handset market. This particular device, likely the OnePlus 7, is due out in Q2, though, sadly, its 5G variant won’t be released in the States in 2018. The addition of 5G in 2019, meanwhile, finds OnePlus taking a more cutting-edge approach to its release cycle, rather than holding back in order to lower the price tag on technology.<doc-sep>
It might have been hidden inside a thick plastic case and locked inside a plastic cube, but at MWC 2019 OnePlus showed a prototype of its first 5G phone to the public for the first time. The device was connected to a local 5G base station with an mmWave connection, the variant of 5G that focuses on high data throughput at the expense of range. In the last few days the company has recently confirmed via a Finnish carrier that it expects to launch it in the second quarter of this year. Aside from showing off what was happening on the device’s screen, OnePlus wasn’t sharing too many new details about the handset, other than to say it was an entirely new device rather than an upgrade to an existing phone. However, the company said that the device could hit a maximum speed of 500 Mbps, although the demonstration content (a 60fps HD stream) was only using around 15 Mbps. It also seemed as though the device’s screen didn’t have a notch, although this could have been hidden for the puposes of this demonstration. Content from the Shadow game streaming service was being shown Previously, OnePlus has confirmed that the phone will come equipped with a Snapdragon 855 processor, and its CEO has said that it’s likely to cost as much as $200 to $300 more than 4G equivalents. The content being shown on the 5G device was a live stream of Ace Combat 7 provided by Shadow, a cross-platform cloud gaming service. Although we weren’t able to play a game using the phone’s touchscreen, we were provided with an Xbox One controller which was connected to the phone via Bluetooth. The game itself was being streamed directly from the cloud, from a server located in Amsterdam. Since Spain’s 5G network isn’t yet widely available, the actual 5G part of the connection was limited to a small mmWave base station that had been installed over the Qualcomm booth. From this base station, the traffic then travelled across a more traditional internet network to the cloud-based server. This setup meant there were plenty of variables which impacted upon the speed of the connection. Whether it was the controller’s Bluetooth connection or the fact that the phone was communicating with a remote server over a network that was overwhelmingly not 5G, the game itself felt laggy. However I should note that there were so many variables at play that when another colleague tried the demo later on in the show, they reported back to tell me they didn’t experience much lag at all. However, both times I tried the demo the lag was a problem for me. I’d press an analogue stick, and half a second later the plane on screen would respond. At another point I let go of the analogue stick entirely, only for the plane on screen to continue turning. Playing a full PC game on a mobile was novel as a proof of concept, but the demonstration stopped short of showing how 5G could make it viable. In the end, the demonstration raised some uncomfortable problems about the realities of early 5G deployments. Without widespread support from telcos, there will still be plenty of bottlenecks in the network that will limit its potential speed. Then, since services like Shadow were originally designed to work on 4G networks, they’re unlikely to want to rely too much on needing the kinds of speeds that 5G is capable of. I don’t doubt that the 70 Mbps connection required for a 4K game stream will one day be possible, but we’re not there yet.