Verizon's First 5G Smartphone Will Cost $1300

Verizon opened pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G today, with a price of $1299 or $54.16 per month for 24 months.

The nation’s largest carrier also announced the first 20 cities that will get 5G Ultra Wideband coverage by the end of 2019.

The Samsung Galaxy S10 5G is a more robust smartphone than the Galaxy S10+ that has already been on sale. Which does seem kind of crazy, considering how powerful the Galaxy S10+ is already. Samsung has given this beast of a smartphone, a larger 6.7-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED display, and a larger 4500mAh capacity battery. Which makes sense, with 5G, you’re going to need as much juice as possible.

Samsung also added a fourth camera to the backside, sort of. You get the ultrawide-angle, wide-angle and telephoto sensors. But Samsung has added that Time of Flight sensor which will improve Bokeh effects in Portrait mode. It still comes with 8GB of RAM, but by default it has 256GB of storage and there is also a 512GB option. To get 512GB of storage, you’re going to be shelling out another hundred bucks.

On top of announcing pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, Verizon also announced the first 20 cities that will be getting its 5G Ultra Wideband service, before the end of 2019.

These cities include Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas, Des Moines, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Little Rock, Memphis, Phoenix, Providence, San Diego, Salt Lake City and Washington DC.

Verizon will be announcing additional cities for its 5G Ultra Wideband service later this year, though some of those unannounced cities may not go live until sometime in 2020.

The 5G Ultra Wideband network uses millimeter wave for coverage on its 5G network. But if you travel into an area that does not have 5G coverage, you will switch back to 4G LTE. Which Verizon has the strongest network in the country, so it’s not too shabby. When it comes to 5G coverage, it will likely be pretty spotty in these cities at first, as we’re seeing with AT&T and Verizon in the cities that it has already launched 5G in. It is available on some streets, but go a block away and no more 5G connectivity.

Remember, this is the early days of 5G so coverage will be sparse and speeds may not live up to the hype that we have seen for 5G in the past few years. Some early speed tests have shown that it is still significantly faster in the real world than 4G LTE, but it’s not the Gigabits per second that 5G has been promising, yet.

Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network is the mobile version of 5G. Not the 5G Home Broadband, which is fixed 5G. The difference is with fixed 5G, once you leave your house, you won’t have 5G. Pretty similar to WiFi at your home, once you leave, you’re no longer on your WiFi network. Mobile 5G should work anywhere, as long as there’s coverage. As mentioned, that could be pretty spotty this year.

For those interested, you can pre-order the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G from Verizon below. If you’re looking for a cheaper 5G device, the Moto Z3 does work on Verizon’s 5G network. The phone itself is $480, but you will need the 5G Moto Mod which is $199. Coming out to about $680, around half the price of the Galaxy S10 5G. That is also linked below for those interested.