In the past few years, 5G cellular coverage has greatly expanded across US carriers and is compatible with iPhone models 12–15 and SE 3. Apple’s default “5G Auto” setting seeks to provide consumers with a trade-off between battery life and network speed. However, you can also manually adjust the parameters to best suit your needs at any given time. See how to turn on/off 5G on an iPhone by following along.
The level of 5G performance that your iPhone will experience will depend on your carrier and your area of residence. In the US, 5G is accessible statewide on Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. Top speeds can exceed 1,000 Mbps (1 Gbps), but most users won’t experience that frequently.
The cellular speeds of the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max are significantly higher96% higher download speeds are displayed on the iPhone 15 Pro Max compared to the iPhone 14 Pro Max.5G comes in various varieties. Whilst it has a somewhat short range, mmWave offers the quickest speeds. Though only compatible with the iPhone 12, 13, 14, and 15, sub-6GHz 5G provides a greater range and speeds that are comparable to 4G LTE.
Top phone providers: Is switching between Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T worthwhile5G’s higher battery consumption than LTE is a drawback, though. When using 4G LTE instead of 5G, several testing have shown that iPhones survive one to two and a half hours longer.
iPhone default 5G setting
With iPhones that are compatible, 5G is turned on by default but won’t be used indefinitely (even if it is accessible). It makes advantage of what Apple refers to as “Smart Data mode,” which attempts to automatically find the optimum compromise between battery life and 5G/LTE. Apple even claims to consider your data plan:
Depending on your data plan, the 5G iPhone default settings are optimised for both data consumption and battery life. In certain apps, you can set these preferences for when to use 5G and how much data to consume.To maximise speed or battery life, you can manually toggle 5G on and off on your iPhone within the cellular settings.
How to turn 5G on/off on iPhone
- Press Cellular
- Select Mobile Data Options.
- Select Voice & Data.
- You can select 5G On to use it whenever it’s available for better speeds, even though 5G Auto is the default.
- As an alternative, use LTE for longer battery life if you wish to totally disable 5G.
For greater quality video for streaming and other purposes like FaceTime, you may also select Allow More Data on 5G by tapping Data Mode in the cellular settings. Conversely, you can choose Low Data Mode to save energy when necessary.
Turn 5G on/off: what’s this icon?
Regardless of whether you activate 5G manually or through the 5G Auto/Smart Data mode, Apple has four distinct symbols in the iPhone status bar to indicate the various 5G service types (sub-6Ghz, mmWave, etc.).Verizon refers to 5G UW, AT&T to 5G+, and T-Mobile to 5G UC (ultra capacity) when referring to mmWave and other high-frequency 5G connections. You are on the lower spectrum (higher range and coverage, slower speeds in comparison) if your status bar displays the plain “5G.”
