Are 5G Phone Speeds The VR Tipping Point?

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VR headsets that connect to your smartphone are still by far the best-selling VR devices. Very few people own a fully-fledged headset like an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive and this means that smartphones are still acting as the main VR gateway for the general public. Thanks to products like the Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard, millions of people were able to get a glimpse of virtual reality last year. But this comes at a cost. Phones simply aren’t made for VR (at least not yet) and so they’re not the best devices for displaying virtual reality’s true potential. The good news is that all of this is about to change. Cellphone companies are getting ready to launch 5g mobile download speeds this year and that means big improvements for virtual reality.

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One of the major roadblocks to VR entertainment is the download speed. In the past, it’s been near impossible to stream a high-quality V video directly to your phone. This meant that you either had to download the video beforehand or stream a pixelated, laggy, video that completely ruined the immersion. Well, all of that’s about to change. 5G network speeds are finally on their way and are expected to hit the market later this year. What this means for VR users is that soon it will be possible to stream genuinely high-quality content to your phone with minimal delay. In other words, immediate gratification. 5G speeds mean that you can do things like video chat in VR from anywhere in the world. You will be able to watch live streams of your favorite video games or porn stars without having to wait for the VODs (video on demand).  Put simply, 5G means more options and more convenience for the average virtual reality user and that is something the industry is still lacking.

So just how fast is 5G? It’s fast. Some predictions are estimating as much as fifty times as fast. Even conservative estimates clock 5G at around 30 times as fast as traditional 4G networks. Fifty times as fast means being able to stream 4k, 360 videos without breaking a sweat. The possibilities that this speed opens up are almost hard to imagine. When asked about 5G speeds, Verizon’s chief information and technology architect had this to say:

“The future is going to bring more stuff that I can’t really describe,” Gurnani said. “We can’t possibly envision the full range of disruptive products and services.” (cnet.com)

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When the very same guy who is getting paid to envision the future can’t envision the future… you know that we’re in for a wild ride! And speed is just the beginning of it. 5G offers a lot more benefits as well. One example is improved power efficiency. Few people realize that one of the most battery taxing functions your phone has to perform is sending data over the Internet. Because the future 5G networks are going to be significantly more efficient, this means that battery life and overheating problems are going to be a thing of the past. If you’ve ever tried to use a Samsung Gear VR for more than 15 minutes, you know first-hand just how frustrating these over-heating problems can be. While not the sexiest virtual reality problem to tackle, resolving basic usability issues like overheating can have a major impact on VR’s popularity.

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The power to live-stream in VR is a game-changer. Imagine being able to follow your favorite vlogger or reality star as they go about their day. A live, 360 feed allows for so much more realism and interaction in these types of scenarios. 360 vlogs are already taking off but soon you will no longer you have to wait for the content creator to edit and upload the video. Instead, you can get a direct feed of what’s going on in their life and potentially even interact with the vlogger in real time.  Like it or not, there is no doubt that this is the entertainment of the future and 5G speeds are a giant leap in this direction. The possibilities are endless and I’m excited to see what else 5G speeds will bring.