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mashinhead

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Oct 7, 2003
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In my last phone 14 PM I didn't ever use 5G because it was unreliable and drained the battery too much. Wondering are you all using 5G? Is the battery performance about the same with LTE or taking a big hit?
 
Not sure what carrier you're on, but it's very carrier- and location-dependent. In the US (not sure if you're here or another area), T-Mobile has mid-band 5G (they've branded it as 5G UC) in most areas of decent population and that can get in the 500Mbps range easily. AT&T and Verizon had to wait for C-Band (their mid-band spectrum) to become available and have been rolling it out in some markets, but also waiting to turn on radios in many more (that spectrum should be clearing soon) - this is where you'll see 5G+ on AT&T and 5G UW on Verizon.

If you're in one of the cities with mmWave set up (mostly Verizon, some AT&T, and a little T-Mobile), that's the short-range, high-speed stuff and also uses the 5G UC/5G UW/5G+ indicators, but that generally feels fast and reliable if you're right by it.

Low-band 5G is just about everywhere, but can get congested on some carriers and has speeds similar to LTE, so if you're seeing that, it might be worth flipping over to LTE, see if it's better, and check back every now and then.

In my case, my T-Mobile-based line easily pulls 500-600Mbps everywhere I go, but my AT&T-based line is lucky if it breaks 100Mbps on 5G. I've managed to get 500Mbs+ on the AT&T line in C-band areas I've visited and 2Gbps+ on mmWave on (downtown Indianapolis and Michigan Ave. in Chicago), so it's just a waiting game for C-band in my city.
 
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VZW 5G used to be crap inside work to the point I had to force LTE but has gotten better the last few months
 
I prefer faster chips than newest cellular modem as the places I go do not receive network upgrades until years later.

I with 32yo 2G & 21yo 3G would be sunset for more spectrum for 4yo 5G.

Just maintain 13yo 4G networks 7 more years then give that spectrum to 6G by 2030.
 
Verizon 5G used to be bad when I first got my 12 PM so I stayed on LTE for awhile, but I get 5GUW most places in Phoenix now. My house gets weird/spotty where I'll go between LTE, 5G, and rarely 5GUW.
 
There’s often 5G midband where I am so I have 5G enabled on my phone.

Iirc, my plan still has a monthly cap on high speed LTE but 5G UW is unlimited (if one can get it).
 
My Verizon plan isn't a 5G plan but, I see 5G on the status bar whenever I'm in an area where it's available.. Not really sure if I am actually on the 5G network or if it just means it's available for use if you have a 5G plan
 
My Verizon plan isn't a 5G plan but, I see 5G on the status bar whenever I'm in an area where it's available.. Not really sure if I am actually on the 5G network or if it just means it's available for use if you have a 5G plan
From what it seems, Verizon provides 5G "Nationwide" (aka low-band) on most plans, including grandfathered ones. They've been bad about holding back mid-band and mmWave unless you're on a plan that allows it. I get the upsell of a "premium" feature, but it's also incredibly dumb in areas where LTE and low-band 5G are congested and they're not pushing people with capable devices to less-crowded parts of the network—sort of creates a bad experience for everyone.

I have seen some reports on Verizon prepaid and some MVNOs allow access to mid-band and mmWave, but don't display the "5G UW" indicator and are speed-capped at 25Mbps, so it's hard to tell if you're connected without going to Field Test Mode on your phone. That might be the case for some old, grandfathered postpaid plans, too.
 
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uhhhh... I thought I would run a speedtest while bored at a stop light near my local CVS(never seen anything close to this ever...):
1697074346399.png



Then at my home about 10 blocks away in a national historic district where no one wants a ugly cell phone tower to ruin the aesthetic(total dead zone...):

1697074534458.png
 
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T-Mobile 5G. Some areas it drops down to LTE but I don’t really notice a difference. 5G is faster than my wifi but has worse upload speeds. I’m directly outside of Dayton OH.
 
I have 5guw, however on my 15pro it just just a battery suck, and heat generation network. The speeds are real the coverage not horrible, but the chipset is just not happy with the mid-band that verizon is using.
 
In my last phone 14 PM I didn't ever use 5G because it was unreliable and drained the battery too much. Wondering are you all using 5G? Is the battery performance about the same with LTE or taking a big break
Just LTE for the same reasons as yours.
 
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