iPhone 12 Is 5G worth it ?

[WillRRRR]

Before my iPhone 12 Pro Max, my mom got her iPhone 12 Pro Max for her birthday 2020.

I got my iPhone 12 Pro Max for Christmas 2020 because of LiDAR Scanner and 5G. My mom and I noticed sub-6GHz 5G may be similar speed as 4G LTE in Oklahoma City on AT&T.

4G LTE is fine for my family at this time.

My parents bought my sister an iPhone 12 Pro Max after her iPhone 8 Plus look like broken in April 2021.

5G is not worth for me and my family until least Christmas Day 2022.

 

[JPack]

In the U.S., until mid-band auctions are complete and rolled out, 5G is not worth it.

Mid-band 5G = 3.5 Gbits/sec
mmWave 5G = 4 Gbits/sec

The fact that you hear so people claim they're getting 100-200 Mbps tells you the network is far from mature.

Realistically, you're looking to at least 2023 before mid-band is a real thing in the U.S. The auctions transfer the mid-band frequencies from federal military users to license winners, but there's no set timeline when that transfer happens.

 

[uploaded]

With LTE I get about 480 Mbit with 5G 980 Mbit here in Cologne - so the 12mini is very fast in both ways. But I have 5G deactivated most of the time to prevent any kind of battery drain.

 

[LFC2020]

5G on a mobile phone, definitely not worth it.

 

[jdb8167]

5G on a mobile phone, definitely not worth it.

Unless you are using your phone to tether to your computer, then maybe.

 

[LFC2020]

Unless you are using your phone to tether to your computer, then maybe.

Yep, I’m already getting 400+ mb on 4G, plus my carrier wants. A extra $10 a month so I can access 5G, that ain’t happening. 😂

Friend of mine who has the same phone and 5G on his account, tested mine and his side by side, absolutely no difference when using both phones.

Unless you’re tethering or downloading huge files, I wouldn’t pay extra for 5G.

 

[Ram65]

5g is a waste maybe by the time the iPhone 15 comes out it’s much more mature. But as of now LTE all day everyday.

 

[jdb8167]

Yep, I’m already getting 400+ mb on 4G, plus my carrier wants. A extra $10 a month so I can access 5G, that ain’t happening. 😂

Friend of mine who has the same phone and 5G on account, tested mine and his side by side, absolutely no difference when using both phones.

Unless you’re tethering or download huge files, I wouldn’t pay extra dollars for 5G.

I can see T-Mobile 5G mid-band with up to around 800 Mbps which could be useful for internet. And T-Mobile doesn't charge extra for 5G. But I have no real reason to tether my iPhone 12 Pro to my MacBook Air. Pretty much everyplace that I take my MBA instead of LTE enabled iPad Pro has WiFi.

 

[dontwalkhand]

It really depends, I have AT&T, and areas that had no service before are now covered with 5G. The speeds are very very lackluster though, and definitely is all hype and no substance (for me). I wish I can turn off AT&T's stupid 5GE indicator and go back to the regular LTE indicator.

 

[mikext]

For those that use 5G on an iPhone mini, has it significantly drained your battery compared to regular LTE?

 

[RobM_]

If you find and replace 5G with 4G, this is the same conversation we all had back at that rollout. 3G is fine, websites aren't that demanding, we don't need that sort of bandwidth, etc etc.

Then demands changed, use cases changed, and new mobile services entered the market that capitalised on the new performance on offer. Things change.
Another thing that changed... 3G performance deteriorated as networks prioritised 4G performance. The same will happen again.

Right now, 5G isn't by any means essential. If you're only keeping your phone for a year, you don't really need it. Fast forward a year or two and that will have changed, just as it did when 4G arrived.

 

[secretk]

I did not buy my iPhone 12 Pro for 5G but for the camera. I used it with just 4G for the first 5 months as my carrier did not have 5G network. Two months ago my carrier launched their 5G network. It is not ultra 5G, it is just general 5G. So the difference between this 5G and 4G is not huge. I cannot say that it has serious toll on my battery life but then again my phone is not connected all the time to Internet, just when I want it or need it. I also do not watch youtube or play games on my phone.

I do tether to my computer rather regularly (every month as I am working from home and have way too many video calls). I can say that tethering experience has been better with 5G. Especially when it comes to video calls with more than 10 participants with cameras on or when it comes to streaming sport events.

Other than that you can live quite well with 4G. For me 5G alone is not a reason to buy iPhone 12 but this is just me.

 

[secretk]

It really depends, I have AT&T, and areas that had no service before are now covered with 5G. The speeds are very very lackluster though, and definitely is all hype and no substance (for me). I wish I can turn off AT&T's stupid 5GE indicator and go back to the regular LTE indicator.

Most probably the issue is with me, but isn't there a setting on the iPhone where you can turn off 5G and default it back to 4G (Settings/Mobile data/Mobile data options/4G)? Wouldn't this work for you?