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That's a problem with your network provider, not LTE. Do you happen to be on an MVNO? The smaller providers rent a limited portion of bandwidth from the main carriers, once they get popular in your area the speeds will tank. That shouldn't happen on the main carriers unless they just suck were you live.

In Tokyo I was struggling to load google maps on Line Mobile (Softbank MVNO) as the speed fell to less than 0.5Mbps. Switched to Softbank and now get 30Mbps in the same scenario and an absurd 50 gig monthly limit (which doesn't count bandwidth used on various sites, like Youtube...)

I have Verizon LTE in a major US city. When I first got my iPhone 6 I was getting 30 mbps speeds (much better than my 1.5 on my iPhone 4s). Now unless I'm in EXACT spots I only get 5mpbs or so in most areas. It's gotten progressively slower for whatever reason despite paying for their most expense plan and being under the throttle limit.
 
I gotta say, Apple's really determined to get those on the low-end for that cheap iPhone..
Coming in from all angles...

First, they try and do away it certain features... then hey reduce the screen and look..

Now they waning to take out 5G....

Their a premium company anyway.... They ain't gonna win..
 
A lot of countries are left behind and still mainly use 4G. This would be a great strategy to increase sales in those countries with aggressive pricing.
 
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I'm just not sold on needing 5G. YMMV but I'm just not excited about it yet.
It sounds like you need a little “prodding” to convince you of your inherent need.

Someone from Apple will be visiting you in the middle of the night in the next 7 - 10 business nights with a spot light, rubber hose, and a Barney looped audio song of “I love you, you love me, we are one big Apple family, to re-educate you on the finer points of Apple needs.

Thank you for shopping Apple

With lots of consumer love,
The Apple Public Relations and Re-education Department
 
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Where I live and work I am lucky to get 1xRTT, or Edge (yes, T-Mobile still has a few EDGE networks out there), and one singular AMPS tower near an aluminum plant. 4G LTE I only get at home. I just use Wifi at work and keep mobile data off since keeping it on makes the phone hotter than a firecracker and the battery life is halved.

So, yes, 5G isn't anywhere near us yet, or for the forseeable future. We're lucky to get a couple 4G areas. That hasn't changed since, well, 2010! I'm even convinced the CDMA/3G GSM shutdown will keep being delayed given that's quite a few angry customers for Verizon/T-Mobile to handle. In fact, when AT&T shut down their 2G network, folks just slapped their active AT&T SIM into an unlocked handset and roamed on T-mobile's Edge network, which my dad even did before his death in 2016 by using the original iPhone 2G. He had a T-mobile SIM in it to make it work.
 
I agree that the $800 USD sounds high for what will be the 'older-step-down-4G' technology.
And since stores apparently don't/can't sell iPhones at much of a discount, the pricing seems too high.

Re. folks here complaining about no USB C -- is there any practical benefit to a USB C over the lightning cable? I had seen one report that the Apple Lightning cable is still running at USB 2.o speeds, but it is (naturally) not specified on the Apple product page.

Answer - answering my own question, (from Business Insider and MacWorld UK),
The Lightning connector cable does seem to run only at USB 2.0 speeds. :-(
A USB-C (connector) could allow for USB 3.1 speeds (much faster than Lightning), and significantly more power transmission, thus allowing shorter charge up times.
Though, doesn't higher power, shorter charge times heat up the battery more and shorten long-term battery life?

So anyway, it does sorta seem like Apple should be switching over to the USB-C style connector faster.

Maybe they've got a warehouse full of Lightning cables that they gotta move out first though ? :rolleyes:

(FYI, I'm still on my iPhone 6, stuck at iOS 12.4.x, so I am planning to upgrade to one of the seeming dozens of iPhone 12 models. )
Lightning can support USB3, the 5Gbps mode anyway. Certain generations of iPad Pro, but no iPhones, support it.
 
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I gotta say, Apple's really determined to get those on the low-end for that cheap iPhone..
Coming in from all angles...

First, they try and do away it certain features... then hey reduce the screen and look..

Now they waning to take out 5G....

Their a premium company anyway.... They ain't gonna win..
Apple’s had an iPhone at $399-$449 for many years.

I don’t know how this reported $800 4G iPhone has anything to do with low end or cheap iPhones.
 
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Looking forward to this! Time to upgrade from a 2018 iPhone X and won't have a 5G device close to my body to harm me. I wish people were more cautious and didn't buy to the latest tech fad without examining all the facts and the ways that new technologies hurt us.
 
the iPhone 12 isn't sounding very appealing this year. Apparently there will be no 120Hz screen, smaller battery, no USB-C, no headphones, and no power brick. The costs are just too high to justify these impulse incremental updates anymore. Well I mean I COULD buy one, but its the equivalent of throwing over 1K away when I have a perfectly good iPhone 11 Pro.

I will be "upgrading" (replacing) for one reason only: the new 5.4-inch form factor, which has not been in an iPhone model before. Camera night mode is a nice bonus but I don't desire anything more than what's in the XS.

You can turn off 5G in settings, right? I think it will stay off on mine for a couple of years. Would I get a 4G-only 5.4? I may.
 
5G really is a waste of time here. Still not on EE or three here who are the two carriers who i would use. 2022 will be when 5G might be worth mentioning.
 
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the iPhone 12 isn't sounding very appealing this year. Apparently there will be no 120Hz screen, smaller battery, no USB-C, no headphones, and no power brick. The costs are just too high to justify these impulse incremental updates anymore. Well I mean I COULD buy one, but its the equivalent of throwing over 1K away when I have a perfectly good iPhone 11 Pro.

I have a different opinion, I feel like the iPhone 12 will be a huge jump especially that this year they are switching to Apple Silicon so i am figuring we are going to see some nice spec bumps and a new iPhone concept. Since you are on an iPhone 11 PRO you do not need to make the switch as your model is already a great one, but people with older models like me will feel a great leap.

I'm just not sold on needing 5G. YMMV but I'm just not excited about it yet.

You are correct. I use 5G and you wouldn't really notice it. For 99% use case it will be 100% the same, if not worse since 5G coverage is small. People have to understand that 5G only shines while downloading huge files we are talking Gigabytes like 5GB game or 10GB 4k movie. Even then you would need huge data caps that telecoms are not providing. 5G is like a formula1 car that has its speedometer locked on 30MPH.
 
You'd avoid the phone because it doesn't have USB-C? Carrying around this cable would be a deal breaker?


You saved up to upgrade your phone and the charge cable is a dealbreaker? Yeesh, ok. I'm charging 90% of the time off a qi charger anyway, so the only time I use the lightning port is 1) to charge quickly in a pinch and/or with my portable battery or 2) when I plug in headphones. I agree it'll be nice when everything uses USB-C, but the connector I want killed way sooner is micro-USB, which somehow still seems to be built into a lot of things. Lightning is non-directional, compact and pretty benign by comparison.

Re. folks here complaining about no USB C -- is there any practical benefit to a USB C over the lightning cable? I had seen one report that the Apple Lightning cable is still running at USB 2.o speeds, but it is (naturally) not specified on the Apple product page.

Answer - answering my own question, (from Business Insider and MacWorld UK),
The Lightning connector cable does seem to run only at USB 2.0 speeds. :-(
A USB-C (connector) could allow for USB 3.1 speeds (much faster than Lightning), and significantly more power transmission, thus allowing shorter charge up times.
Though, doesn't higher power, shorter charge times heat up the battery more and shorten long-term battery life?

So here's the thing -

Samsung's Note 10 Pro last year could charge via USB-C at 45W. That's faster than the Macbook Air charges. Oneplus, Samsung, etc most Android phone makers have figured out how to charge through USB PD charging SAFELY at speeds much above the 18W Apple seems to be maxed at with Lightning. That's one benefit.

The other is that USB-C is the same port for USB4, which can easily give speeds upto 10gbps. Let's say it's only USB3.1, that's still 5gbps. Lightning is USB2.0. That's another benefit.

I don't want to argue the benefits more, if Apple thought Lightning was so great, they would have used it on their Macbooks and iPad Pros as well. So you can direct your arguments over at them.

For me personally, I will tell you why USB-C is a dealbreaker. I like to travel, a lot and I do so quite minimally. Most of the time I have one bag, also known as onebagging. However, I also have to work, which allows me to travel a lot. So right now, due to the places I may be at, I have to carry:

- 2 USB-C cables for my Macbook Pro (1 spare)
- 2 USB-C to lightning cables for my iPhone (1 spare)
- USB-C to micro-USB connector for my kindle (thankfully it's a tiny connector that attaches on the cable)

If they switched to USB-C like almost every other phone on the planet, I would then have to carry:

- 2 USB-C cables for my Macbook Pro, iPhone and if I choose to take it, iPad pro (1 spare)

It also saves having to use multiple chargers at different plug points and is quite a convenience if at night, there is only one charging point near my bed - I can charge my phone off it, then just remove it to charge my laptop etc. I can do all of that using a single USB PD 60W charger (I also carry a spare for this).

So there are technical benefits and convenience benefits. Of course, none of this applies if all you have is an iPhone and a small 5W charger.

I stopped using the wireless charger near my bed at home as well because it was just very slow and inefficient. Now I have 2 dangling cables on my bedside table, instead of one (1 USB-C for laptop and 1 USB-C to lightning for my phone).

Everyone's use case is different, so I am not going to say this fits every body. But the fact remains that USB-C now is the defacto standard for mobile phones across the world. I'd rather we standardized on it and moved on.
 
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It sounds like you need a little “prodding” to convince you of your inherent need.

Someone from Apple will be visiting you in the middle of the night in the next 7 - 10 business nights with a spot light, rubber hose, and a Barney looped audio song of “I love you, you love me, we are one big Apple family, to re-educate you on the finer points of Apple needs.

Thank you for shopping Apple

With lots of consumer love,
The Apple Public Relations and Re-education Department
One of us! One of us! One of us!
 
Whenever I hear the FUD about 5G being mind-control or poison or something I am reminded of AMPS being a cause for brain cancer (which was debunked, but it still got shut down to appease those morons) to 4G LTE being bad for folks' health just like we're hearing about 5G (which might be why 1xRTT and 3G reigns supreme around here!)

Does anyone remember the conspiracy theories about broadband Internet being evil and dial-up was one's way to promote their freedom? But analog dial-up was supposed to still work post-Y2K apocalypse after all!
 
I have a different opinion, I feel like the iPhone 12 will be a huge jump especially that this year they are switching to Apple Silicon so i am figuring we are going to see some nice spec bumps and a new iPhone concept.
So, Apple Silicon is Apple CPU chips specially designed for Macs, but they already have Apple CPU chips specially designed for iPhones - that’s what they’ve been using and perfecting for the last decade: the A-series, from A4 up to the current A13. No doubt, in the fall, there’ll be an A14, with a nice improvement over the A13, but I don’t expect they’re “switching to Apple Silicon” for the iPhone - that makes no sense. All signs point to the iPhone 12 being a nice year-over-year upgrade, not a redesign.

What they are doing is releasing new Macs that use chips that are cousins to the A-series (that powers iPhones and iPads) - that’s what Apple Silicon is all about.
 
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ill get the 4g only variant for sure. 5g is rather gimmicky and the new millimeter wave tech is concerning for health.

I have yet to see any serious study that reports any difference on human health between 3/4G and 5G, and have seen plenty that show there isn't one. Have you?

Bear in mind that while 5G transceivers have shorter range, and therefore require more units per cell, they also emit lower power than 4G towers individually, and I understand that mm wavelengths penetrate less deeply in human tissue.

In any case the EMR power/area of the base station drops off very quickly with distance (almost to the fourth power), so the real issue would be the handsets, not the towers. Presumably the devices have to comply with the limits on emitted EMR power, and can be easily measured to ensure they do.
 
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FYI, any concerns about health impacts of 5G (or AMPS, GPRS, 3G and 4G as well, believe me they all had FUD about it) are no more credible than the anti-vaxx logic of autism being caused by vaccines. Fake science!

File it under the same heading as 'smart meters'
 
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FYI, any concerns about health impacts of 5G (or AMPS, GPRS, 3G and 4G as well, believe me they all had FUD about it) are no more credible than the anti-vaxx logic of autism being caused by vaccines. Fake science!

File it under the same heading as 'smart meters'

Best not to use fallacies to make arguments for science. It discredits your points. I recommend doing real research. Here is some help:


Non-ionizing radiation 3g/4g:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3579630?seq=1

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/9276003/

P57-59
https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP88B01125R000300120005-6.pdf

5g penetration: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17929264/
 
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