The iPhone 12 Will Have 5G and it Doesn’t Matter

With the release of the next iPhone just around the corner, speculation is running wild on Apple’s newest flagship devices. We are expecting a new design as well as the usual tech spec upgrades but it looks like 5G will also be a part of the upgrade. As we approach the release, rumors seem to keep confirming the theory that the next iPhone will be 5G compatible. But for the average user this change is not going to make any real difference at all.

Usually, the unveiling of Apple’s new iPhones are set for early to mid-September but it looks like the release is being pushed back by a month to mid-October due to the coronavirus pandemic impacting production. With more and more rumors coming out about the iPhone 12, we are starting to see that Apple, like its competitors is turning towards 5G. More specifically, they are turning towards Qualcomm who will produce the modems for the new iPhones instead of Apple’s previous modem manufacturer Intel. This shift towards Qualcomm is happening because of Intel decision to effectively stop manufacturing modems. Further down the line, Apple is planning to develop its own modems as they bought out Intel’s modem production operations and is set to produce their own 5G modems by 2022. Until then, previous rivals Qualcomm and Apple have decided to play nice and collaborate on the iPhone 12 modems. For the time being, the shift towards 5G is great news for Qualcomm as they are producing almost all 5G modems on the market, notably the new OnePlus and Samsung lineups. You will also notice that this has led to a significant increase in price with $899 OnePlus 8 Pro and the Samsung S20 lineup starting at $999. The 5G Qualcomm modems are reportedly a lot more expensive than previous modems so I also wouldn’t be surprised we see a similar jump in price with the new iPhones. Considering how phone carriers are pushing 5G as the “can’t miss” technology of the future, it seems only normal that phone producers are rushing to incorporate 5G modems in their phones.

But let’s first have a little reminder of where we’re at with 5G. In the US, there are two distinguishable versions of 5G right now. The fast kind that only works in direct line of sight of the cell tower called ‘Millimeter Wave 5G’ and Verizon is the main carrier pushing this version. On paper, this version is great as it can give you over 1GB/second in download speed but in practice you probably won’t be getting those speeds because even very small things like a tree or a car can obstruct the connection, not to mention walls. The only carrier that has launched this is Verizon with very limited availability in a very few select areas and they‘re growing this network slowly and incrementally. Chances are you don’t happen to live near a Verizon millimeter wave cell tower and won’t be able to experience this any time soon. On top of that, most phones’ batteries are unable to support this kind of demanding technology for a long time. Therefore, the other version called low band 5G may seem like the better option. T-Mobile is pushing this version a lot and it’s likely to be the version that you will see first yourself just because the average person doesn’t go out of their way to find a cell tower that has millimeter wave. But in the end this version isn’t the ‘true’ version of 5G because it doesn’t tap into the higher frequency wavelength (i.e. 30 to 300 Gigaherz on the band of radio frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum). In fact, T-Mobile is clear in saying that its 5G network uses very similar technology to 4G networks by taping into the same range of wavelength frequency. Instead, their 5G network is upgraded in many other ways that allow for higher speeds than its 4G network like higher-end cell towers. As a result, carriers can expand low-band 5G a lot faster and cheaper. In general, this gives you just about a 20% to 30% upgrade on your 4G speeds. Does that warrant the drastic prices that carriers are asking for especially when you’re mostly stuck at home using WiFi during a global pandemic? If you want a more detailed comparison at the difference between millimeter wave and low-band 5G then I recommend you check out MKBHD’s videos on the matter.

Nevertheless, 5G proponents are very adamant about the immense benefits it will hold for us in the future by enabling technologies such as self-driving cars or remotely operated surgeries. But the last time I checked, Tesla, the company closest to having self-driving cars operates their auto-drive features offline. Which got me thinking: will my car just stop working when it’s out of reach of a 5G cell tower? That certainly doesn’t sound like my next road trip will be very successful! Or if they’re talking about the far-out future when all cars and roads will be interconnected, I don’t think we’re talking about the same timeframe. By the time that happens we’ll likely be talking about 8G if carriers keep it up at this rate. And regarding remotely operated surgeries, I simply don’t understand what smartphones and cell service has to do with it. Wouldn’t hospitals just use an ethernet or WiFi connection that is anyway a lot more stable and faster? It’s more likely advancements like 10 Gigabit ethernet or WiFi 6 will make more of a difference here. Interestingly, you’ll notice that most such proponents of 5G are phone carriers or modem manufacturers like Qualcomm.

Yet, regardless of whether you think 5G is the future or it’s the cause of all evil (just like gluten), Qualcomm and phone carriers around the world are pushing 5G. And Apple, just like any other tech giant, is afraid to be left behind in the dust. According to reports, the iPhone 12 will have the average / sub-6 GHz compatible 5G modems whereas the iPhone 12 Pro will have the modems compatible with millimeter wave 5G. But ask yourself when you last thought that your current 4G connection wasn’t fast enough? I myself can’t think of anything I do when I’m not at home that I can’t do with my 4G connection. To be very honest even when I am at home I could do everything at 4G speeds. Browsing Twitter or Instagram, watching YouTube or Netflix even in 1080p is more than comfortably within the range of what the majority of 4G networks can offer. Are you able to download the full 9 seasons of The Office in less than a minute? No, but you also can’t do that on a low band 5G network like the one T-Mobile is pushing. And I don’t know about you but I can’t remember the last time I downloaded 9 seasons of a show while out in public. Most of us stream everything anyway. I would bet you a lot that most T-Mobile 5G users don’t even notice the difference unless they’re comparing their Ookla speed test results. Moreover, I often find myself in areas where there is no 4G coverage. Why don’t we first worry about expanding the 4G network to more rural areas where it’s still unavailable before we get started on something we don’t really need? But of course expanding 4G coverage isn’t something that you can up-sell your customers on whereas marketing for ‘the next frontier of internet’ practically writes itself. When it comes to what most people do on the internet, 5G speeds are insignificant but they‘ll still try to convince otherwise. YouTube videos might load slightly faster but it’s not going to be anywhere close to the ground-breaking speeds you keep hearing of. With the next iPhones, Apple will follow suit and jump on the 5G bandwagon but trust me when I say that you’re not going to notice a real difference in the day-to-day usage of your phone.