Assuming you have followed the saga of the Galaxy S20 up until this point, I can’t imagine there isn’t much you don’t already know about it. You know what each phone will look like, what their cameras are capable of, and most of the specs. With a first sighting of a Galaxy S20 at the FCC today, we’re piecing together some of the final details as we prepare for February 11.
The Galaxy S20 is the only phone there so far as model SM-G981U. This is the US model that will likely be sold as both unlocked and with carriers, since it supports everything available in the US. We also believe there will be model numbers of SM-G986 (S20+ 5G) and SM-G988 (S20 Ultra 5G), though we didn’t find those at the FCC just yet. There may be LTE models internationally as SM-G981 (S20) and SM-G985 (S20+) at some point too.
As far as new stuff goes, the big find here is the cellular connectivity section, where we get details about LTE and 5G bands. The LTE bands you’ll need are all there, so I won’t waste your time talking about those. Instead, let’s talk 5G, since this is going to be the year that all phones have some form of 5G support.
To figure this out, pay attention to the NR section in the Galaxy S20 5G band section above. 5G NR is the industry standard for 5G, in case you were wondering what that meant.
What we are seeing here is support for 5G bands n2, n5 (AT&T), n41 (Sprint), n66, and n71 (T-Mobile). With those bands, you are getting low-band (AT&T, T-Mobile) and mid-band (Sprint) 5G support, which is exactly the types of 5G networks we have live from the carriers we specified.
You’ll notice I didn’t name Verizon there and that’s because they are currently only pushing mmW 5G, which is high-band 5G (n261) and not listed. I’m not sure if that’s because these phones just don’t support that at all or if Verizon is going to have its own models.
Additionally, this FCC filing reveals NFC, WiFi 6 (802.11ax), and MST (Samsung Pay). Should we find more, we’ll be sure to update this post.
// FCC
This post was last modified on January 24, 2020 10:18 am