The good news is that Verizon has begun to roll out its 5G network.
The bad news is that the network’s speeds are fairly variable, and that Verizon’s 4G LTE network may in fact be faster as well as help conserve your iPhone 12’s battery life.
Tests were performed using an iPhone 12 Pro at eight locations around New York City, but similar results are likely to be seen elsewhere …
Per PCMag’s findings:
We ran tests on an iPhone 12 Pro toggling between 5G and 4G at the same locations. In both cases, DSS 5G turned in worse results than 4G LTE […]
I took the iPhone 12 Pro to eight locations around New York City, where I compared 4G and 5G speeds. At the first seven locations, the 5G was DSS and generally slower than 4G.
The article attributes this to Verizon using a shortcut known as “Dynamic Spectrum Sharing,” or “DSS,” to achieve its 5G coverage, as explained here:
[DSS 5G] reuses parts of 4G channels for 5G. Phones will automatically prefer a 5G network over a 4G one, so Verizon customers will see that coveted 5G icon pop up. But it’s all for show. Our most recent tests, using an iPhone 12 Pro in New York City, show that DSS 5G is frequently slower than 4G, and rarely faster. These results are similar to what we saw in October in Chicago with a Pixel 5.
While Verizon didn’t admit that its 5G network might typically be slower than its 4G LTE network, it did cite that there’s no real advantage to its current implementation of the network technology:
“For most customers, performance on our 5G nationwide network will be similar to 4G. [DSS] is new technology and we’re continuing to modify it as we go. We expect performance improvement through 2021 and beyond,” a Verizon spokesperson said.
Still, if you happen to be lucky enough to live an an area with mmWave 5G access, you should see the promised and well-marketed blazing speeds. Unfortunately, given its short range, users won’t see it that often, even in big cities. The rest of the time, Verizon users are stuck with DSS:
If you don’t have any dedicated channels, DSS lets you use the odds and ends of your unused 4G channels for 5G. The 4G and 5G phones compete for the same 4G channel. The only difference is that the 5G ones are running the 5G encoding system on that channel. There are non-speed advantages to DSS—or there will be in the future, once carriers go to standalone 5G systems—but right now, you’re just getting slower performance […]
If you don’t have UWB 5G coverage, you’re likely to get better Verizon performance for now by disabling 5G on your iPhone
So, if you want to turn off 5G on your iPhone 12, follow these instructions:
- Head to the Settings app on your iPhone 12
- Tap Cellular
- Choose Cellular Data Options
- Tap Voice & Data
- With 5G Auto as the default, you can choose 5G On to use it anytime it’s available
- Alternatively, if you want to turn 5G off completely, tap LTE