The iPhone 12 (Pro) supports 5G, but it also drains your battery a lot faster. This way you can temporarily disable 5G and just use 4G to save your data bundle and battery.
Turn off iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 5G
All 2020 iPhones support 5G, but the big question is whether you always want to use it. While 5G enables new speeds, this extra speed also affects battery life and data usage.
Always, sometimes or never 5G on your iPhone 12
The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro have a standard on, whereby the device only uses 5G if this does not have a major impact on your battery life. You can turn this option off and always use 5G, or prefer a different connection. This works as follows.
- Open the Settings app;
- Go to ‘Mobile network’;
- Tap on ‘Mobile data options’;
- Tap ‘Calls and data’;
- Choose between 5G On, 5G Auto or 4G.
As the names say, you can set how your iPhone handles 5G in this way. With ‘5G On’, your iPhone only uses 5G, which ensures higher speed but also speeds up your data bundle. 5G Auto only switches on 5G if it is useful to you and it does not have a major impact on your battery life and with ‘4G’ you switch 5G off completely.
iPhone 12 Using Data Mode
In addition to opting for an iPhone 12 with 5G connection, you can also limit the amount of data. Handy if you have a small data bundle and still want to use it for a whole month. You do this as follows.
- Open the Settings app;
- Go to ‘Mobile Network’;
- Tap on ‘Mobile data options’;
- Tap on ‘Data mode’;
- Choose ‘Allow more data on 5G’, ‘Standard’, or ‘Data saver mode’.
5G explained in the Netherlands
Although the Dutch 5G network is not yet ready to achieve optimal speeds, the four iPhone 12 models are ready. Currently, Dutch providers use the so-called ‘Sub-6GHz’ network.
Sub-6GHz 5G works at a greater distance from cell towers and is therefore very suitable for rural areas. This variant is indeed faster than 4G, but not nearly as fast as mmWave. This second form of 5G requires a shorter distance to the cell tower and is particularly beneficial in cities. There are often many more masts there.
Want to know more about the iPhone 12 and 5G in the Netherlands? Check out our article in which we explain how this works.