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We asked, you told us: Most aren’t buying 5G phones until networks are ready
July 16, 2025
After several years of hype and speculation about5G networks, carriers are slowly starting to roll out the new service. At the same time,Qualcomm has made 5G modemsavailable, and manufacturers are already beginning to put the hardware in its phones.
Now that ahandful of 5G-compatible phonesare available for purchase,we wanted to knowif you were planning to upgrade to access the faster network. Here’s what you had to say.
Will you upgrade your phone just to get one with 5G?
According to the majority of the over 24 thousand people who voted in this week’s poll on thesiteandYouTube, 5G networks aren’t ready yet. As many commentators stated,5G serviceis currently only available in hyper-specific areas within a handful of cities.
If we use4G and LTEas an example, it has beennearly a decade since carriers started rolling outthe service. Today, most areas are widely covered, but there are still large regions where you’ll be lucky even to see a 3G signal. As history tends to repeat itself, we’ll be lucky to see a decent percentage of highly-populated areas offer 5G within the next two to three years.
So I have to agree with most of those who voted in this week’s poll; hold off on buying a 5G phone for now. First adopters will be able to show off how fast the network is on a speedtest, but they most likely won’t see a true benefit for several years.
Noteworthy comments
Here are some of the best comments from last week’s poll explaining why they voted the way that they did:
That’s it for this week, everyone. As always, thanks for voting, thanks for the comments, and don’t forget to let us know what you thought of the results below.
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