The design of an eight-element H-shaped dual-band multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna system for sub-6 GHz fifth-generation (5G) smartphone applications is presented in this work. The radiating elements are designed on the side edge frame of the smartphone, placed on both sides of the main printed circuit board (PCB). Each side edge consists of four radiating elements, which ensures low mutual coupling between antenna elements. The total size of the main PCB is 150 x 75 mm(2), while the size of the side edge frame is 150 x 7 mm(2). A single antenna consists of an H-shaped radiating element fed using a 50 Omega microstrip feeding line designed on the main board of the smartphone. The results show that, according to -6 dB impedance bandwidth criteria, the designed MIMO antenna radiates at two different frequency ranges within the allocated 5G spectrums, i.e., 3.1-3.78 GHz and 5.43-6.21 GHz with 680 MHz and 780 MHz bandwidths, respectively. It is also observed that the antenna elements are able to provide pattern diversity for both the frequency bands. Furthermore, an isolation of >12 dB is observed between any two given radiating elements. Numerous MIMO critical performance characteristics are assessed, including diversity gain (DG), envelope correlation coefficient (ECC), and channel capacity (CC). A prototype is built, measured, and it is observed that the measured and simulated data correspond well. On the basis of performance characteristics, it can be claimed that the suggested MIMO system may be used in 5G communication networks.