We know that 5G phones are practically knocking on our door, but what about 5G enabled notebooks? Apparently, if the latest announcement from Dell Technologies is anything to go by, they are just around the corner too.

The tech titan announced today that it is building on its agreement with Orange, one of the largest operators of mobile and internet services worldwide, to help people experience the impact and power of the next generation connectivity.

The two companies recently completed live field trials of Dell’s first 5G-ready Latitude notebook announced at CES earlier this year, making it the first PC to successfully pass the Orange 5G testing. These first field trials, conducted on the Orange 5G network in Paris, were held to demonstrate the promise of 5G. It worked – the results were  sustained download speeds over 900 megabits per second on an enterprise-grade mobile compute platform. This blew typical 4G speeds that usually are under 60 megabits per second, out of the water.

The purpose of the exercside was to demonstrate that  together, the companies can create immersive and interactive environments that “unlock new business opportunities, while delivering what employees demand with connectivity to help boost productivity and collaboration.”  

“5G opens a broad new frontier for businesses and consumers with the Always-Connected PC. Today’s announcement is a clear example of how 5G can impact our daily lives,” enthused Liam Quinn, senior vice president and senior fellow for Dell Technologies.

“Downloading a large presentation or training video could take seconds instead of minutes. Enhanced broadband communications and lower latency enables new usage models and users to complete tasks much faster than 4G-enabled networks, which creates and drives new business models and new applications, like augmented and virtual reality, cloud-assisted gaming, real-time language translation and image processing,” he continued.

“Delivering a simple and seamless end-user experience that leverages the power of rich mobile broadband – with the reality of 5G – is a priority for us,” added Helmut Reisinger, CEO, Orange Business Services. “As a network-native digital services company, we are building on the power of our digitally-driven partner ecosystems to co-create with Dell on always-connected and secured smart mobility solutions for our enterprise customers and the smart knowledge worker of the future.”

The good news is that the partnership is intended to benefit business users, enterprises and consumers alike. The companies noted that each will have the network and platform to exploit 5G in brand new ways that could change the way people consume and use information from entertainment to remote surgeries.

Leading the charge for the 5G possibilities is the aforementioned Dell Latitude 9510. This, Dell Technologies asserted, is “the world’s smallest, lightest and most intelligent commercial 15-inch PC with built-in AI.”

The presser further notes that it is aimed at giving business users what they really want, such as the longest battery life of any 15-inch business PC with a target of up to 30 hours, intelligent solutions that increase productivity and 5G-ready design which incorporates 5G antennas into the speakers.

The bottom line is that it is likely not long before there is a line drawn in the sand between smartphones/tablets/notebooks that do offer 5G facility and those that don’t and are rendered ‘yesterday’s technology’. No doubt it is going to make for some interesting developments in the months and years to come.