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Carrier 5G Auto vs ON vs Standalone
- Thread starter twilliams_on
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I have Verizon and use the service all around the Los Angeles area. 5G/UW is available in most areas. Based on my experience, 5G On looks for the 5G/UW signal more often where the 5G Auto goes back and forth to conserve battery. I’ve tried switching to 5G On and noticed the phone connects to 5G/UW most of the time. PRO: I get much better data/internet speeds. CON: The phone battery gets depleted much quicker. This is on an iPhone 13 Pro.
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I have auto: 5g here is still spotty, so it switches to 4g/5g as needed and no complaints.
Cricket on att towers small city. Even on full 5g on I don’t get guaranteed 5g, so it will drop anyways, but gives less stability.
Depending on the 5G coverage in your area, sometimes the best thing is to turn 5G off altogether and stay on 4G, as 5G is a major battery drainer, especially in the areas with poor coverage.
5G is designed to work best in crowded places (airports, stadiums, concert happy and such), but in rural areas, at least for now, you may not get good speed benefits vs 4G and will definitely get a poorer battery life.
If you want/need it on 5G, just put it on Auto and it will use it whenever there is a good 5G signal.
5G is designed to work best in crowded places (airports, stadiums, concert happy and such), but in rural areas, at least for now, you may not get good speed benefits vs 4G and will definitely get a poorer battery life.
If you want/need it on 5G, just put it on Auto and it will use it whenever there is a good 5G signal.
What is better; 5G Auto or the 5G Standalone option?
Also, isn't the 5G 'On' similar to Standalone?
(I have no Wifi, so am reliant on my Mobile Data. I get decent battery life on my 14 PM)
Also, isn't the 5G 'On' similar to Standalone?
(I have no Wifi, so am reliant on my Mobile Data. I get decent battery life on my 14 PM)
These are two different settings. 5G Auto (vs 5G On) determines how aggressively the iPhone will attempt to use 5G.
With 5G non-standalone, this affects how long the phone waits when there is heavy data load before it attempts to aggregate an NR (5G) carrier with LTE carriers. With 5G standalone, there are no LTE carriers, but this likely influences how aggressively it engages NR carrier aggregation. In both cases, using an NR carrier with 5G NSA is going to be less power efficient than without. But with LTE carriers becoming quite congested on a lot of LTE networks nowadays, the benefit of being able to use an NR carrier in the data plane can help with data performance.
5G Standalone allows the phone to use 5G without an LTE primary component carrier when the network supports and allows it. Among the most noticeable differences, this results in lower latency as the control plane and data plane are entirely on the network operator's 5G core. My recommendation here is to try it and make the judgement call for yourself. If it seems to degrade performance, turn it off and try it again in a few months. All three major operators in the US have enabled SA in parts of their network.
T-Mobile's SA deployment is the most mature. Verizon just began allowing mobile lines for ordinary customers onto SA within the last 2 months or so. AT&T still has a limited set of lines that are allowed to use SA, but by-and-large it's not available for most customers to enable yet.
I'm from Australia, that uses the 5G Network, though I do not have Wifi in my area. I was hoping for a more simplified answer. i.e. Do I use the 5G Standalone setting with the 5G Auto. (that is what my iPhone is currently set at and I get decent battery life per day)