iPhone 12 Lineup Enables Personal Hotspot Over Faster 5GHz Wi-Fi

[MacRumors]

As noted by MacRumors contributor Steve Moser, and confirmed by Aaron Zollo, the iPhone 12 lineup introduces support for Personal Hotspot tethering over faster 5GHz Wi-Fi, compared to 2.4GHz Wi-Fi on previous iPhones.

Personal Hotspot over 5GHz Wi-Fi is enabled by default on all iPhone 12 models. In the Settings > Personal Hotspot menu on these devices, there is a new "Maximize Compatibility" toggle that reverts Personal Hotspot to 2.4GHz Wi-Fi when enabled, with Apple noting that this may reduce internet performance on devices that are connected to the hotspot.

The combination of iPhone 12 models supporting higher-speed 5G networks and 5GHz Wi-Fi's higher maximum throughput paves the way for faster Personal Hotspot, but testing will have to be done to confirm the exact speed improvements. Keep in mind that while 5GHz Wi-Fi is faster than 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, it has shorter range, so Personal Hotspot speeds will vary based on the distance of a tethered device to the iPhone.

Personal Hotspot allows an iPhone's cellular data connection to be shared with other devices like a Mac over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or Lightning.

Article Link: iPhone 12 Lineup Enables Personal Hotspot Over Faster 5GHz Wi-Fi

 

[poematik13]

They should have gone over this in the keynote, it's actually a big deal

 

[gretafour]

5GmmWave: it’s like Wifi but only works outside down the street!

 

[thadoggfather]

This phone rocks

it may legit be the biggest year over year upgrade in my eyes.

except maybe 3GS to 4.

 

[I7guy]

This is basically a cool surprise.

 

[okieoutwest]

5G over 5Ghz! Nice!

 

[SkyRom]

This will be fun to test, I travel a good bit for business. Hmm. I hope Verizon and AT&T don’t crank up the fees *skeptical hippo*

 

[Cosmosent]

Here's the Downside to this, if you're a Verizon customer, as I am.

Even with their Top Tier UN-limited option, customers are limited to ONLY 30 GB per month of Hotspot Data, before it gets throttled-down to ONLY 600 Kbps !

So whether your Wi-Fi is 2.4 GHz OR 5 GHz, OR your cellular connection is Fast OR NOT, it doesn't really matter, Users are Forced to Self-Throttle their activities !

Otherwise, you can burn thru your allotment Fast !

Verizon should really increase the monthly HotSpot limit to 45 GB, 50% more !

 

[Truckondo]

Maybe a dumb question but which mode uses more battery? I’m going to assume 5Ghz.

 

[luvbug]

Here's the Downside to this, if you're a Verizon customer, as I am.

Even with their Top Tier UN-limited option, customers are limited to ONLY 30 GB per month of Hotspot Data, before it gets throttled-down to ONLY 600 Kbps !

So whether your Wi-Fi is 2.4 GHz OR 5 GHz, OR your cellular connection is Fast OR NOT, it doesn't really matter, Users are Forced to Self-Throttle their activities !

Otherwise, you can burn thru your allotment Fast !

Verizon should really increase the monthly HotSpot limit to 45 GB, 50% more !

This is but one reason why I'm surprised by how "up" everyone is about 5G, and so long wifi, etc. 5G is controlled by telcos (so far), and they wants their $$ bad, so who the hell wants 5G? I'll take an unlimited wifi connection any day over a byte-counter 5G connection controlled by you-know-who. (This is for the US, ofc. I have no idea how the EU providers handle this stuff.)

 

[I7guy]

Here's the Downside to this, if you're a Verizon customer, as I am.

Even with their Top Tier UN-limited option, customers are limited to ONLY 30 GB per month of Hotspot Data, before it gets throttled-down to ONLY 600 Kbps !

So whether your Wi-Fi is 2.4 GHz OR 5 GHz, OR your cellular connection is Fast OR NOT, it doesn't really matter, Users are Forced to Self-Throttle their activities !

Otherwise, you can burn thru your allotment Fast !

Verizon should really increase the monthly HotSpot limit to 45 GB, 50% more !

Yep, the hotspot is not a replacement for your home internet. If you want to burn through movies and music, especially on the road, the hotspot feature is not for you.

 

[jarman92]

I have an iPhone 12 Pro with a 600+ Mbps 5G connection, and my 11" iPad Pro gets <1 Mbps using Personal Hotspot...so I wouldn't celebrate this change just yet ?

 

[mazz0]

I don’t understand the benefit of this. Surely the 2.5GHz Wi-fi is faster than any mobile network, so what do you get from a faster Wi-fi?

 

[Sneakz]

This is a big deal. It’s always irked me that I can regularly top 250mbps on LTE, probably more once I have a 12 Pro Max, but since lightning is limited to USB 2.0, it tops out around 210-220mpbs using personal hotspot.

 

[austinmm6]

I don’t understand the benefit of this. Surely the 2.5GHz Wi-fi is faster than any mobile network, so what do you get from a faster Wi-fi?

There is more room in the 5ghz spectrum than there is on 2.4ghz. If you are in an area with dense wireless coverage you'll have less interference.

 

[Radeon85]

Long overdue.

 

[zorinlynx]

I'm a bit irritated that Apple is holding this feature back on prior iPhones; they have the hardware to do personal hotspot on 5GHz bands.

 

[JCCL]

I'm a bit irritated that Apple is holding this feature back on prior iPhones; they have the hardware to do personal hotspot on 5GHz bands.

Absolutely agree....exactly what I was thinking...Apple being Apple...artificially holding back features from older iPhones that are perfectly doable to justify the upgrade.

 

[yurc]

Errr....Google Nexus 5X/6P are already able sharing hotspot connection over 5GHz bands from early 2016. Indeed it just LTE. Apple should enable those on previous iPhone too, by software updates, since it already 5GHz compliant.

 

[dmylrea]

Here's the Downside to this, if you're a Verizon customer, as I am.

Even with their Top Tier UN-limited option, customers are limited to ONLY 30 GB per month of Hotspot Data, before it gets throttled-down to ONLY 600 Kbps !

So whether your Wi-Fi is 2.4 GHz OR 5 GHz, OR your cellular connection is Fast OR NOT, it doesn't really matter, Users are Forced to Self-Throttle their activities !

Otherwise, you can burn thru your allotment Fast !

Verizon should really increase the monthly HotSpot limit to 45 GB, 50% more !

I don't understand why people think that if their internet is faster, they will use more data? Movies and media consume the same amount of data whether it's LTE or 5G. There are only so many hours in a month. You can't be mass-downloading stuff to your phone. Email, web, etc., still the same amount of data, just faster. Like if the city put bigger water pipes in the street outside your house, are you going to use more water just because the pipes are bigger?

Please explain how faster internet is going to make you use more?

 

[JCCL]

This phone rocks

it may legit be the biggest year over year upgrade in my eyes.

except maybe 3GS to 4.

Biggest upgrade? The whole experience is pretty much unchanged (which is why they are probably artificially limiting some features to the new phones when the older ones are perfectly capable) - the only big year over year upgrade it's the iPhone 7/8 to iPhone X, that one actually changed the usual experience.

Other than that, I fail to see how could this be a biggest upgrade (15% performance increase, camera improvements, and Augment Reality stuff are the same things they advertise every year). 5G is a big upgrade......if you are in one of the market that supports it.

 

[JCCL]

I don't understand why people think that if their internet is faster, they will use more data? Movies and media consume the same amount of data whether it's LTE or 5G. There are only so many hours in a month. You can't be mass-downloading stuff to your phone. Email, web, etc., still the same amount of data, just faster. Like if the city put bigger water pipes in the street outside your house, are you going to use more water just because the pipes are bigger?

Please explain how faster internet is going to make you use more?

While for normal browser I agree data should remain the same (a good LTE connection should more than suffice in this scenario) for streaming services there can be a difference (sometimes quality is dictated by transfer speed). This can easily be addressed in setting tough.

Also, your water pipes analogy also doesn't quite work - if as a result you get increased water pressure....you might be wasting more water on a 10 min shower than before. Sure if the result of the increased water pressure is that you can take the shower in less time, then it would remain the same but that would hardly be the case.

 

[now i see it]

but once again ignoring the elephant in the room - constant disconnects

 

[averagenerd81]

I don’t understand the benefit of this. Surely the 2.5GHz Wi-fi is faster than any mobile network, so what do you get from a faster Wi-fi?

2.4Ghz wireless is at fastest 300Mbps theoretical. I’d say realistically 150Mbps in areas with no interference.
I hit almost 300Mbps on LTE yesterday, well surpassing the real speeds of 2.4Ghz WiFi.

 

[averagenerd81]

but once again ignoring the elephant in the room - constant disconnects

That elephant doesn’t exist in my room.