Not content with simply making a statement that they were looking to lead the way in the race to 5G alongside the likes of Intel, Samsung’s input at this week’s Mobile World Congress also demonstrated the potentially life-changing benefits of the technology.

Samsung collaborated with Deutsche Telekom to introduce the benefits of the move from 4G LTE networks to 5G ultra-low latency (ULL) technology with a simply a robotic arm and two metal balls.

During the demonstration, the arm – programmed to pick up both the pink and silver ball – picked up the pink ball and place is on a magnetic holder to catch them in a plastic container. Transmitting information in milliseconds, Samsung’s ULL technology meant the arm only successfully picked up the 5G pink ball, and not the LTE silver ball, tracked with different “slices” of the network. The pink ball was detected on behalf of its low latency of 0.75 milliseconds, in contrast to the silver ball’s recorded a latency of 25 milliseconds. A 5G ULL network transmitted around 20KB of data during the demo, however.

This speed of network feedback could have dramatic impact in remote medical procedures, as well as self-driving cars, according to Antje Williams, head of Deutsche Telekom's 5G programme.

Samsung also recorded 4K HD video streams at speeds of around 2.5 gigabits per second at the event, in demonstrating how 5G can have a significant impact on exploring all aspects of the network in the future.