Right now, you’re probably reading this article on your phone or are playing VR wirelessly on a 4G internet connection. Ushering in a new generation of mobile capabilities, HTC just announced that their 5G Mobile Smart Hub will be headed our way in Q2 of 2019!
The 5G hub is a 5-inch HD touchscreen that looks like a small tablet. It’s small enough to fit on a shelf at home or work desk and supplies enough internet for 20 devices, reports HTC. It’s also said to be useful for not only fast internet speeds but is going to make cloud-based VR technology, most notably a Vive Focus headset, run smoother than on a 4G connection.
The company shares that their carriers include Sprint, Telstra, EE (UK), Three UK, Deutsche Telekom (Germany), Elisa (Finland), and Sunrise (Switzerland). No word yet if there will be more jumping on board for the hub but by the looks of it HTC is taking this thing globally.
“Sprint is thrilled be the exclusive U.S. wireless carrier for HTC 5G Hub in the United States,” said Dr. John Saw, Sprint chief technology officer. “This device will revolutionize the connected home, enhance mobile gaming and power small businesses in a new and exciting way. Together with HTC, we’re excited to dramatically improve the way our customers work, play and stay connected with the power and speed of 5G.”
There’s nothing like trying to record a live stream just to have issues with the internet and fuzzy graphics quality. What users of the 5G Mobile Smart Hub will gain is 4K quality video streaming and low lag gaming at 60fps. Perfect for gaming vloggers and streamers who want the best in internet connectivity.
“HTC is proud to bring to market the world’s first 5G mobile smart hub,” said Cher Wang, Chairwoman and CEO of HTC. “5G will be the game-changer for VR and AR, and the new HTC 5G Hub will seamlessly deliver the great bandwidth of 5G to our devices, driving our vision of Vive Reality—a boundless, immersive environment where human experiences will come to the forefront.”
On the VR front, users in the future will be able to use their Vive Focus headsets, which are already wireless, without connecting cables. Making the 5G Hub entirely wireless while maintaining a high-quality mobile experience.
It’s important to note that HTC says it can replace a Wi-Fi router, has voice command and remote-control features for ease of use. The hub has specs like, “Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 855 Mobile Platform with the Snapdragon X50 5G Modem and antenna modules with integrated RF transceiver, RF front-end (RFFE) and antenna elements. Along with Android™ 9 Pie”.
For businesses the hub comes with, “Snapdragon 855 Platform” and “Qualcomm® 60GHz Wi-Fi chipset (based on the 802.11ad specification) for multi-gigabit speeds and wire equivalent latencies, as well as the Qualcomm® 2×2 Wi-Fi 6-ready chipset for next generation capacity, efficiency, and performance at range.”
Small businesses and workspaces with up to 20 people at a given time can use it as is. Any group above that is advised to use the hub’s Gigabit ethernet port.
