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Does the iPhone 5 S (original) support LTE

StarShot

StarShot

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 31, 2014
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I'm using my wife's old IP5 S (original model) to tide me over until the IP8 comes out later in the month. I've noticed when I'm away from home wifi, the phone reverts to 4G. Checking the internet, I find several sites that say the IP5 S does support LTE. Does anyone know if it does or doesn't? Regardless, it's our household backup and not worth much in a sale.

Man, is it SLOWWWWWW.
 
There were five different models, supporting slightly different bands. It'll give you 4G if you're in an area that uses the same bands.

The specs are here.
 
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StarShot said:
I'm using my wife's old IP5 S (original model) to tide me over until the IP8 comes out later in the month. I've noticed when I'm away from home wifi, the phone reverts to 4G. Checking the internet, I find several sites that say the IP5 S does support LTE. Does anyone know if it does or doesn't? Regardless, it's our household backup and not worth much in a sale.

Man, is it SLOWWWWWW.
Click to expand...


My t mobile iPhone had LTE when I had it.
 
Nermal said:
There were five different models, supporting slightly different bands. It'll give you 4G if you're in an area that uses the same bands.

The specs are here.
Click to expand...

I checked the 5 models and mine doesn't appear to be on the list. According to "About", mine is a NE298LL/A. According to a brief browse, this means it is/or/was a T-Mobile phone. I bought this phone back in '13. The ONLY provider I've had with iPhones dating back to the IP 3G has been ATT. Could this be the reason the phone apparently doesn't support LTE?
 
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iPhone 5 introduced LTE. iPhone 5S has LTE as well. I have T-Mobile, and also occasionally run into 4G, instead of LTE. However this only happens when I'm in area are that barely has service. If I see the 4G icon, I know I'm close to an area that could have no service. For me, this is consistent with certain large warehouses, basement of building, etc.

If your situation is not like mine, then I would call your carrier and make sure everything is activated properly, and that the phone you have is completely carrier compatible.

I doubt it's an issue where it doesn't have enough bands. Pretty sure they include enough bands for all the US networks, and would only ever be an issue when going international.
 
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VanillaCracker said:
iPhone 5 introduced LTE. iPhone 5S has LTE as well. I have T-Mobile, and also occasionally run into 4G, instead of LTE. However this only happens when I'm in area are that barely has service. If I see the 4G icon, I know I'm close to an area that could have no service. For me, this is consistent with certain large warehouses, basement of building, etc.
[/QUOTE

I just remembered about a year or so ago that I had some trouble with my original IP5 S and took it into the Genius Bar. They made me a deal where I paid around $200 and they gave me a replacement. In "about", it does say it is a NE298LL/A model which I see on the internet means it might be a TMobile model. I don't really care one way or the other since it does work as it is our home backup and I'll soon be getting the new IP8 and this phone will be going back into the drawer. I just thought it was strange to see 4G come up when I'm not on wifi.
Click to expand...
 
i have a verizon iPhone5 and it does LTE.
the phone is old and does weird things from time to time.
 
StarShot said:
I just remembered about a year or so ago that I had some trouble with my original IP5 S and took it into the Genius Bar. They made me a deal where I paid around $200 and they gave me a replacement. In "about", it does say it is a NE298LL/A model which I see on the internet means it might be a TMobile model. I don't really care one way or the other since it does work as it is our home backup and I'll soon be getting the new IP8 and this phone will be going back into the drawer. I just thought it was strange to see 4G come up when I'm not on wifi.
Click to expand...
I have T-Mobile. iPhone 6s+ and my wife has a 6s.

Without our Cellspot (provided by T-Mobile) we'd only have 4G at home.

I bring that up because that is down to T-Mob's coverage around my house.

PS. I have two Sprint iPhone 5's (5, not 5s) and both are LTE capable. But they only get 4G on T-Mobile because Band 25 is not the band T-Mob uses for LTE.

I bring THAT up because my 5 is older than your 5s and it got LTE when we were on Sprint.
 
Katamari12 said:
LTE and 4G is basically the same. The minimum speeds of 4G are actually faster than those required for LTE.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/4g-vs-lte/
Click to expand...
That article is referring to ITU's "definition" of 4G, rather than a specific technology. LTE is considered by most people (including Apple) to be a 4G technology; the status bar will read "4G" when connected to an LTE network.

Oddly my old iPhone 4S reported "4G" when roaming in the US a few years ago even though it was a 3G-only phone. I suspect that roaming can confuse it a bit (although in other countries it correctly reported 3G).

Edit: I'm confused with some of the posts above mentioning "normally getting LTE" but "sometimes only getting 4G". Can someone clarify that? I've been led to understand that LTE and 4G are essentially just different names for the same thing.
 
Nermal said:
That article is referring to ITU's "definition" of 4G, rather than a specific technology. LTE is considered by most people (including Apple) to be a 4G technology; the status bar will read "4G" when connected to an LTE network.

Oddly my old iPhone 4S reported "4G" when roaming in the US a few years ago even though it was a 3G-only phone. I suspect that roaming can confuse it a bit (although in other countries it correctly reported 3G).

Edit: I'm confused with some of the posts above mentioning "normally getting LTE" but "sometimes only getting 4G". Can someone clarify that? I've been led to understand that LTE and 4G are essentially just different names for the same thing.
Click to expand...
4G in the United States is actually an enhanced version of 3G. LTE is LTE (a 4G techology). My 4s reported 4G on T-Mobile when my son was using it.

So, our 4G is not your 4G.

And yes, there is an icon for it.

See below…

2017-09-02 13.23.42.png
 
Well that's nice and confusing. In every other country I've been to, my iPhone says "4G" when on LTE and "3G" when you leave LTE coverage (and I think I saw an occasional "E" when I was in Australia!).

So the US versions are different, just to make forum posts more confusing :p
 
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Yep, because as I said 4G is not actually a 4G technology here.

Think of it as 3G+ and what marketing majors working for major US carriers did with that to generate sales. :)
 
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All I know is that I took an ATT IP5 S into an Apple store to fix and they "apparenty" gave me a replacement TMobile IP5 S to replace it for about $200 and change. The old IP5 S did show LTE in the fastest network areas and the replacement shows 4G instead. There are several posts in this thread that say 4G is the same as LTE. I don't know if that's true or not, but I think Apple should have told me I was getting a TMobile phone, especially since I paid over $200 for it.

I haven't used this phone much until last week when I sold my IP7. I've noticed it's very slow in updating apps. The phone will go back in storage as soon as I receive my new IP8.
 
The original 5 had very limited LTE support. Supported the original ATT bands (ATT phone) and probably the main Verizon LTE bands (on Verizon model). The carriers have expanded LTE bands since then.
 
The GSM model supports world LTE bands. However 5S is artificially limited by Apple by preventing it from VoLTE Calling.
 
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