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Be it the 5G variant of OnePlus 7 Pro or the Mi MIX 3 5G, first generation 5G phones are powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon X50 modem. The American chipmaker took the pole position by releasing the first commercial 5G modem ahead of all of its competitors.

moto_z3_verizon_5g_mod
Verizon’s Moto Z3 comes with an external 5G Moto Mod powered by Snapdragon X50

Well, that does not mean that other modem designers have given up. Samsung has their own set of cellular modems under the familiar Exynos brand name, and Exynos Modem 5100 is the answer to Qualcomm’s aggressive marketing in the cutting edge network connectivity.

The Exynos Modem 5100 is a cellular modem that is fully compliant with 5G NR defined by 3GPP’s Release 15 delivering the first set of 5G standard. The Exynos Modem 5100 supports both sub-6GHz and mmWave (millimeter Wave) spectrum bands for extremely fast, massive and reliable data connection to realize 5G’s essentials of eMBB(ehnhanced Mobile Broadband), mMTC(massive Machine-type Commnication) and URLLC(Ultra Reliable & Low Latency Communication).

As a matter of fact, the South Korean Samsung Galaxy S10 5G units (model number: SM-G977N) are powered by the Exynos 5100 modem. On the other hand, the carrier branded S10 5G models in the US (model number: SM-G977U/P/T) come with Snapdragon X50 modem inside.

s10_5g_exynos_motherboard_techinsights
Notice the Exynos 5100 modem on the motherboard of Korean Galaxy S10 5G (Image source: Tech Insights) (Click/Tap to zoom)

Thanks to Telstra in Australia as well as EE in the UK, the Exynos powered Galaxy S10 5G is now available to a wider range of users. The internal model number of the model is SM-G977B, and they were launched with May security patches on board (ASE7 build, just like the 4G variants).

As the Australian Galaxy S10 5G is based on Exynos 9820 platform, its day-one firmware features camera night mode out of the box. The phone is now getting June security patches with the OTA version of ASFA, which is slightly newer than the ASF3 build rolled out earlier for the Galaxy S10 LTE units.

s10_5g_g977b_asfa_ota_changelog

The size of the incremental OTA is around 130 MB, but you can bypass the long waiting queue and download the full firmware using tools like Frija. The decrypted firmware then can be flashed via ODIN.

samsung_odin_flashing
Flashing a Samsung phone using ODIN

It is possible to cross-flash the firmware on the EE Galaxy S10 5G units, but I would suggest to wait a bit. The British wireless carrier is following a different version numbering, thus you may face compatibility issues by using the Telstra firmware.

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Kingshuk De
896 Posts

I came from a mixed background of Statistics and Computer Science. My research domains included embedded computer systems, mobile computing and delay tolerant networks in post-disaster scenarios. Apart from tinkering with gadgets or building hackintosh, I like to hop on various subreddits and forums like MyDigitalLife and XDA.

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