HTC has unveiled its new 5G Smart Hub, a 5G mobile hotspot that supports up to 20 users and will be available to Telstra customers later this year.
“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.”
Under the hood, the HTC 5G Smart Hub is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 chipset and 50 5G Modem. It also runs on Android 9 Pie, 4GB of RAM and 32GB of on-board storage. The HTC 5GB Hub also features both a gigabit Ethernet port and a 5-inch HD touchscreen. HTC claim that the 7660mAh battery inside the HTC 5G Hub "ready to support a wide range of on-the-go duties."
In Australia, Telstra is currently the only telco signed up to offer the device to customers. HTC say the Hub will launch in Q2 and Telstra say that it'll be "Australia's first 5G mobile device."
Kevin Teoh, Telstra’s Consumer Segment Executive, says that “we are working with the very best in 5G and Mobile Broadband to bring our customers the next generation of devices and enable a future of greater connectivity. Telstra is proud to partner with HTC on the launch of the world’s first 5G mobile smart hub, which will be Australia’s first 5G mobile device.”
What does this mean to consumers? Telstra customers will be able to have their own 5G hotspot later in 2019.
HTC say the HTC 5G Hub will be available through select retailers beginning in Q2 of 2019.