Tests of Verizon's 5G in Chicago on the Galaxy S10 5G show download speeds of up to 1.35 Gbps, but speeds were inconsistent, though never fell below 550 Mbps
Julian Chokkattu / Digital Trends :
Context & Ripple Effects
Verizon's mobile 5G launched in parts of Chicago and Minneapolis in April 2019 with the Moto Z3, whose early tests showed 400-600 Mbps but spotty coverage. A month later, Verizon opened preorders for the $1,300 Galaxy S10 5G and named 20 cities for 2019 expansion, making handset availability the next proof point.
Digital Trends' Galaxy S10 5G testing now supplies that proof point: peak speeds of 1.35 Gbps in Chicago — roughly double the Moto Z3's earlier 400-600 Mbps results — but with enough variance that the floor of 550 Mbps becomes the more telling number. The gap between peak and consistent performance is exactly what later carrier-wide testing would probe.
First-order effects
- Early Galaxy S10 5G buyers paying $1,300 in Chicago get genuine multi-hundred-Mbps-to-gigabit downloads, but only where Verizon's 5G coverage holds — the inconsistency means the experience varies block by block.
- Verizon gains a marketing data point over its April launch numbers, while the 550 Mbps floor shows its mmWave deployment is still coverage-limited despite the peak-speed headlines.
Second-order effects
- Samsung's $1,300 5G flagship gets a real-world justification it lacked at preorder time, strengthening the case for the 5G handset lineup Verizon is selling across its 20-city expansion.
- Rival carriers face pressure to publish comparable real-world speed tests — a bar the broader market later failed, when a 26-city test found AT&T's 5G largely slower than its own 4G.
Third-order effects
- The pattern of impressive peaks masking inconsistent real-world 5G foreshadows the industry-wide finding that early US 5G did not live up to its hype, shifting competition from peak-speed marketing toward consistency and coverage.
- If the gap between marketed and delivered 5G persists, carrier differentiation moves to network densification and device pricing — the $1,300 entry cost for 5G being an early signal of the premium buyers were asked to pay for an uneven experience.
The trend: US mobile 5G is rolling out city-by-city through 2019 and 2020, with each independent speed test narrowing the gap between carriers' peak-speed claims and the consistent performance subscribers actually get.