A method for determining and compensating for residual phase noise in a 5G NR DL signal includes converting a block of 5G NR DL time domain signal samples into a block of frequency domain samples for one OFDM data symbol and equalizing and combining the frequency domain samples that fall in an outermost sample accumulation region of each quadrant to form a first composite sample for each quadrant, selecting a signal constellation point belonging to one of the four outermost constellation point decision region as a reference constellation point, rotating at least some of the first composite samples so that the first composite samples are in the same quadrant as the reference constellation point, combining the rotated first composite samples to produce a second composite sample, calculating a phase error between the second composite sample and the reference constellation point, applying phase correction corresponding to the phase error to all subcarriers of the OFDM data symbol, and generating output data from the phase-error-corrected OFDM symbol.