We show you how to deactivate 5G on the iPhone 12 and thus avoid that excessive battery consumption that it can produce.
If you have an iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Mini, or iPhone 12 Pro, you might be interested in finding out how to manually enable or disable the 5G network on your device whenever necessary.
Support for 5G cellular networks is arguably the biggest feature of Apple’s iPhone 12 lineup. Of course, 5G promises much better internet speeds than 4G LTE and even better performance on congested networks, but that could have a significant impact on your iPhone’s battery performance. Plus, there’s a good chance you don’t live in an area with 5G coverage. In these cases, you can disable 5G on your new iPhone and possibly save precious battery life, or even just avoid 5G networks if you’d rather not use one for whatever reason.
Interested in knowing how to prevent your iPhone from connecting to 5G networks? So read on to see how to disable or enable 5G on your new iPhone 12.
Disable 5G on iPhone 12, Mini, Pro and Pro Max
If 5G is not available in your area or you do not have a promotion compatible with 5G connectivity, there is no point in keeping 5G active. You may also want to disable 5G for battery saving reasons. Doing so is very simple. Here’s what to do:
Go to “Settings” from your iPhone home screen.
In the settings menu, tap on “Mobile” which is located just below the Bluetooth settings as shown in the screenshot below.
Select the cellular plan for which you want to manage 5G connectivity
Select “Voices and data”
And then select “4G” or “LTE”
Enable 5G on iPhone 12
The procedure is the same as for disabling 5G, but in this case, it is possible to choose two different options: “5G active” and “5G Auto“. The difference? In the first mode, iPhone 12 will connect and use 5G networks whenever they are available in the area where you are. The second, on the other hand, the recommended one, allows you to take advantage of 5G, when available, to complete heavier downloads and speed up all those operations that, otherwise, would require more time to be completed.
The 5G active mode is the one pre-set by Apple for the iPhone 12 line.
But be careful: if you use two sims on the iPhone 12, at least for the moment, you can’t even use 5G when both SIMs are active. By deactivating one of the two SIMs, it is in any case possible to take advantage of the new cellular connectivity. In addition, Apple should soon release an update that can remedy this problem and also allow those who use two cellular plans at the same time to take advantage of 5G.
5G status bar icons
After enabling 5G, if you still don’t see the 5G icon in your status bar, chances are your carrier doesn’t support it or you don’t have any 5G coverage in the area you are in. You can always contact your network’s customer support to check if they have 5G coverage in your area.
Depending on your carrier and coverage in your area, the 5G icon you see in the status bar may vary. Sometimes, you may see a 5G + icon which means a higher frequency version of 5G is available. On the other hand, if you notice a 5G UW icon, it means that you are connected to Verizon’s highest frequency network called 5G Ultra Wideband. If you have an unlimited 5G data plan, you may be interested in activating an additional setting in the Cellular Data Options menu. You have the option to set Data mode and choose “Allow more data over 5G” which allows apps to consume more data for high definition content, higher quality video calling, FaceTime, higher quality music streaming and even iOS updates via your cellular network.
Disabling 5G on your iPhone can help you save some battery life as the Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 5G modem used by Apple can affect the battery performance of your iPhone 12, as 5G requires more power to transmit data.
Now you know how to easily enable or disable 5G on an iPhone 12 and be in full control of the feature. Do you live in an area with 5G coverage? Would you often turn off 5G to extend the battery life of your iPhone? Share insights, thoughts, experiences or opinions in the comment section. Thank you.
5G is not working on your iPhone? See how to fix this problem.
