Samsung’s 5G Galaxy S10 is off to a rough start in South Korea

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Last week, Samsung proudly announced the Galaxy S10 5G in Korea as the world’s first full-fledged 5G smartphone. Many bought the promise of gigabit download speeds by paying an exorbitant price of 1,397,000 won (~$1,230). But within a week of its launch, users have been struggling with slow network speeds, limited connectivity, and the inability to switch back to a more reliable LTE connection.

Business Korea reports that several users of the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G have been complaining of poor 5G connectivity. Further, switching to a 4G LTE network has gone in vain for most 5G savvies as they have had to struggle with endless disconnection issues. Even though the transition from 5G to 4G should be seamless, just like the transition from 4G to 3G, users have been unable to connect to 4G networks, even after restarting the device repeatedly.

This issue is rampant with the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G users on all of the major telcos in Korea. Samsung tried to remedy the issue of poor 5G signals by pushing an update to the smartphone on April 6 but this hasn’t helped the users much. In spite of the update, most of the early 5G adopters still complain of the lack of ease while connecting to a 4G network.

Instead of treating the problem, Samsung and telcos have been busy blaming one another, with the phonemaker claiming that it has provided all the necessary software to ensure unrestricted connectivity. Meanwhile, SK Telecom, LG U+, and KT have denied any complaints about this problem with connectivity. However, spokesperson for one of the telcos says that it is impossible to rule out the possibility of a “terminal failure” while switching from 5G to 4G.

At the same time, an industry expert says that irrespective of claims, the fact is that 5G network is not fully optimized yet which is why the signals relayed between the base stations are not smooth. We can expect to have some clarity as to whether the carriers or Samsung is to be blamed for this fault when LG releases the LG V50 ThinQ with 5G later this month.