AT&T rolls out Samsung Galaxy S8 Active, LG V30 update that adds 5G Evolution logo

Despite what many of you would think, AT&T's so-called 5G Evolution service has nothing to do with the carrier's 5G network. We reported last month that AT&T plans to add a '5G E' indicator to some smartphones as a sign that they use its 4G LTE towers equipped with speed enhancing tools such as 4x4 MIMO, which enables the use of four antennas to connect signals from a cell tower.

In other words, “5G Evolution” is AT&T's enhanced version of 4G LTE, so it's not to be confused with 5G connectivity which will have a different indicator displayed on compatible smartphones.

Now, AndroidPolice confirms that the first smartphones to receive an update that adds the said indicator are Samsung Galaxy S8 Active and LG V30, two flagship smartphones that were launched on the market back in 2017.

There's a major size difference between the two updates. While Samsung Galaxy S8 Active's update weighs in at 123MB, the LG V30's is quite huge at 1GB. The former is also getting the December security patch along with the 5G E indicator, but that's about all we've been able to learn from the changelogs.

We expect other smartphones to be updated with the 5G Evolution logo, although AT&T hasn't named any of these devices, so your guess is just as good as ours.