5G- any good?
- Thread starter willbur
- Start date
Honestly I see no difference. There are areas where you can't even get the 5G service, like my neighborhood. Areas where I had 5G service I couldn't tell a difference.
Have you looked into 10G that I see advertised by Comcast all the time? Is that twice as good as 5G?
I receive better response times when I'm in densely populated areas where a lot of users are not on WiFi. I don't expect rural areas would notice a big difference since traffic is rather low to begin with.
All things being equal, internet speeds are faster when you have a strong signal. If I have five bars of 4G and my friend has five bars of 5G, his searches outrun mine. If you don't have a strong signal, there is no difference.
True 5G is still a bit rare, we seem to have a good signal at our house (5G UC) but just a few miles away it disappears. Yes the download speeds are faster but when is 700 Mbps really needed on a phone as opposed to 100 Mbps? Maybe it makes a difference on our T-Mobile home internet service but I don't stream from my phone.
My phone seems "faster" now than it did when I had an LTE only phone but that's probably due to a better and faster processor rather than the Internet speed. A newer phone that is "5G" is probably just going to be a faster and better phone which has some value in and of itself.
My phone seems "faster" now than it did when I had an LTE only phone but that's probably due to a better and faster processor rather than the Internet speed. A newer phone that is "5G" is probably just going to be a faster and better phone which has some value in and of itself.
Don't get hung up on it. Phones are backwards-compatible with a few previous protocols.
What modern phone doesn't support 5G ? Unless you're looking at prepaid providers who often sell old phones, anything from the big carriers, VZW, ATT, TM, etc will be 5G, I'd think.
Just tested "5G" and got a dismal 24 / 5 Mb/s; LTE is worse, 8 / 4.5. I have gotten 300 Mb/s on 5G but only in certain areas.
What modern phone doesn't support 5G ? Unless you're looking at prepaid providers who often sell old phones, anything from the big carriers, VZW, ATT, TM, etc will be 5G, I'd think.
Just tested "5G" and got a dismal 24 / 5 Mb/s; LTE is worse, 8 / 4.5. I have gotten 300 Mb/s on 5G but only in certain areas.
Jackson_Slugger
$50 Site Donor 2022
Yes it's definitely better, I notice a difference when downtown using available 5G and in the 'burbs where it is still 4G...
I had 5 bars on 3G 1 bar or non on 4G, 5G is nonexistent. Now I leave the phone on wifi so I can deposit checks and just leave it at home, if I can find another way to deposit check online I will toss the phone in the bin. The size and battery life suck, cell phone user since 1987 when phones were expensive and gigantic, for decades they went small with extreme battery life now we are going backward, give me my old Nokia 8210 any day.
Getting 5G now is for the better IMO. They will eventually sunset 4G LTE, but I'm sure we're several years away from that yet. They only just sunset 3G in the US.
Even if you get a 5G compatible phone and then turn off 5G, you'll at least be future proofed a little. When you are in strong 5G coverage, especially UW, it is really fast. However, in my experience, if I only have one or two bars of 5G UW, it is unusable.
Even if you get a 5G compatible phone and then turn off 5G, you'll at least be future proofed a little. When you are in strong 5G coverage, especially UW, it is really fast. However, in my experience, if I only have one or two bars of 5G UW, it is unusable.
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If you're in an area with a spotty connection (rural) it may be better to force your phone to 4g or lower. These older protocols are "slower" but the signal travels further and stronger than 5g.
4g is more than fast enough to watch YT, so at that point a slower/stable connection is a better experience than a faster one that may drop out.
4g is more than fast enough to watch YT, so at that point a slower/stable connection is a better experience than a faster one that may drop out.
As a cost savings measure, I gave up my wired broadband internet with my local cable provider.
I switched to unlimited fast data 5G broadband internet router and bundled it with my cellphone service.
I did some speed tests, getting 40 Mbs download speed in my home with 5G. It's not blasingly fast, but it's sufficient to watch Netflix/youtube videos on our 3+ TV's and for family to use internet through the router.
But the silver lining is that each phone also gets it's own fast unlimited data hotspot (like poor man's multithreading), so each household member technically has their own hotspot router on their phone with their own separate 40 Mbs speed connection to the tower. From a speed perspective, total internet speed for our family is: 40 Mbs speed times 7 phones + 1 dedicated router = 40 Mbs * 8 separate lines = 320 Mbs simultaneous speed total. Also all this hotspot data on the router and the phones is unlimited and it won't get throttled or slowed down.
Since the 5G router is small and can run on either AC power or battery + the phones are obviously all portable,
we have broadband internet wherever we go (like on vacations). We don' tneed to use the insecure wifi at hotels, airports, coffe shops, etc anymore.
Benefit to using a 5G router is: If you get a power outage, as my area sometimes gets during high wind or heavy snow, the 5G router runs off of an internal battery that can last from 12 to 15 hours. Also, the 5G internet service never or rarely goes down, as cell tower is always on. My wired internet would sometimes go down if a tree falls somewhere and knocks out the telephone poll lines.
I switched to unlimited fast data 5G broadband internet router and bundled it with my cellphone service.
I did some speed tests, getting 40 Mbs download speed in my home with 5G. It's not blasingly fast, but it's sufficient to watch Netflix/youtube videos on our 3+ TV's and for family to use internet through the router.
But the silver lining is that each phone also gets it's own fast unlimited data hotspot (like poor man's multithreading), so each household member technically has their own hotspot router on their phone with their own separate 40 Mbs speed connection to the tower. From a speed perspective, total internet speed for our family is: 40 Mbs speed times 7 phones + 1 dedicated router = 40 Mbs * 8 separate lines = 320 Mbs simultaneous speed total. Also all this hotspot data on the router and the phones is unlimited and it won't get throttled or slowed down.
Since the 5G router is small and can run on either AC power or battery + the phones are obviously all portable,
we have broadband internet wherever we go (like on vacations). We don' tneed to use the insecure wifi at hotels, airports, coffe shops, etc anymore.
Benefit to using a 5G router is: If you get a power outage, as my area sometimes gets during high wind or heavy snow, the 5G router runs off of an internal battery that can last from 12 to 15 hours. Also, the 5G internet service never or rarely goes down, as cell tower is always on. My wired internet would sometimes go down if a tree falls somewhere and knocks out the telephone poll lines.
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It really depends where you live regarding 5g if you're in a city or urban area chances are it will be good. A weak 5g signal I think is worse than a weak LTE.
So with that said,
I wouldn't buy a new phone because of 5g
BUT I wouldn't buy a new without 5g
There is a good chance you will not notice a difference between the two though its possible with a strong signal. For all around use, at this point I am still favorable to LTE.
My iPhone 12 Pro has 2 sims. Only 1 is 5G capable. I can switch data between the 2 sims. 5G is sometimes faster, and sometimes so jammed up, I switch to 4G Just to get functionality.
Wha....?
I would not buy a new phone without 5g however would not yet run out and purchase a phone simply to get 5G. I noticed some areas 5g is crazy fast(Tampa, Mil in N MA beach town) similar to decent home WiFi. Most of time it’s pretty normal like faster LTE.
