A method and network node for timing error estimation and compensation for Fifth Generation (5G) New Radio (NR) downlink (DL) systems with uncalibrated antennas are provided. According to one aspect, a method in a network node includes transmitting a first Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) having a first timing compensation and transmitting a second CSI-RS having a second timing compensation, receiving a CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI) in a CSI report from a wireless device (WD), and determining from the CRI which of the first and second timing compensation results in a greater spectrum efficiency.