✔️ 2022-03-20 14:14:11 – Paris/France.
5G, 5G, 5G! Carriers and smartphone makers can't stop talking about the speed of the fifth-generation mobile network. Is the much-hyped technology worth a device upgrade? 5G is fast – when you can find it – but as my week of battery testing shows, it's a big drain on power, and there aren't any killer apps requiring data speeds yet. high.
Over the past year, carriers have offered aggressive trade-in offers — up to $1 off — to entice people to upgrade to the latest 000G models, after spending billions of dollars to set up the new mobile network. It works: According to Counterpoint Research, global sales of 5G smartphones surpassed 5G handsets for the first time in January.
Earlier this month, Apple AAPL 2,09% added 5G to two more of its products, the entry-level iPhone SE and the new iPad Air. The entire iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 range is 5G compatible, as are some models of the latest iPad Mini and iPad Pro. (Android phones have also long had 5G capability, though this review focuses on Apple.)
Your next phone or tablet will likely be 5G-capable, if your current phone isn't already. All unlimited data plans through AT&T, T-Mobile TMUS -1,37% and Verizon VZ -2,98% include network access.
As you might expect, there's a trade-off between blazing speeds and power conservation. When to use 5G will likely depend on what you're doing. Whether you're new to 5G or just wondering what it does to your phone, here's what you need to know about how the mobile network will — and won't — change your iPhone or iPad experience.
5G versus 4G LTE
The carriers were serious about speed: I recently downloaded a nearly 10-hour Spotify playlist in less than a minute over 5G. In an extreme example, my colleague Joanna Stern experienced a download speed of 1 megabits per second on Verizon's 300G network in Jersey City, NJ (compare that to your own cellular and home Wi-Fi speeds using fast.com .)
To achieve that speed, Joanna was parked just below the cell tower that emits the fastest type of 5G, called millimeter wave, preferred by Verizon. This super-fast flavor requires you to be within a few hundred yards of the cell site for maximum speeds, and trees, buildings, and other obstacles can slow it down. Additionally, Jersey City has the fastest median upload and download speed of any city in the United States, according to broadband measurement company Ookla.
Apple's new third-generation iPhone SE supports 5G, but not the fastest flavor, called millimeter wave.
Photo: Nicole Nguyen/Wall Street Journal
My city of San Francisco isn't even in the top 30. Walking around different neighborhoods and using Ookla's Speedtest app to test Verizon, I saw 5G speeds ranging from 160 to 361 Mbps for downloads. In comparison, my download speeds on the 4G network, usually called LTE, ranged from 55 to 140 Mbps. (For comparison, the national average internet speed in 2021 was 99,3 Mbps, according to HighSpeedInternet.com.)
Scrolling through Instagram and Twitter, I didn't notice any difference between 5G and 4G. I saw the most variation when uploading and downloading media. On T-Mobile's LTE network, a 30-second cinematic video took 3,4 seconds to download from iCloud Drive. On the carrier's 5G, the download was so instantaneous that I didn't have time to press start/stop on my stopwatch.
(I haven't had a chance to test AT&T's network, but the results would likely be consistent, since Apple uses the same 5G modems regardless of network.)
The battery test
While Apple offers a cellular battery life estimate for iPads, the company doesn't share the same on its iPhones. An Apple spokesperson said that there are different tests for different products because each device has a different function.
So I wanted to compare the performance of 5G and 4G batteries myself. I streamed a long YouTube video of relaxing ocean footage, with video quality set to "Auto", on various Apple devices until they ran out of battery, first on 5G, then on LTE. It's not a perfect test, but it's proven to be a consistent way to witness the additional battery drain of 5G.
This is why the most important conclusion of this experiment is the difference in battery performance on the two types of networks: T-Mobile 4G and 5G for the iPhone SE and 13 Pro; Verizon 4G and 5G for the iPhone 13 Mini and the new iPad Air. Just note that a device's lifespan doesn't say much on its own, as it's not actual behavior (unless staring at 10-hour oceanscapes while you're in town is your thing) .
As expected, 5G was more battery draining than LTE in all cases. (In my testing, I didn't experience the extreme speeds associated with millimeter-wave 5G, which would likely have drained the battery even more.)
The new SE lasted nearly an hour longer on 4G than 5G, while the new iPad Air and iPhone 13 Mini lasted about 1,5 hours longer. And while the iPhone 13 Pro ran for 12 hours and 50 minutes on 5G, it lasted about 2,5 hours longer on LTE.
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A YouTube spokeswoman said the "Auto" quality setting takes into account many factors, including connection type and screen size, adding that the app could play a higher resolution over 5G. compared to 4G, but many factors can influence power consumption. She said the company is "always looking for ways to optimize battery consumption" and has made some improvements for streaming over 5G.
Durga Malladi, head of 5G at Qualcomm, which makes modems for Apple and other phone makers, explained that when you're using an app on 5G, data can flow at a faster rate than you'd see. with a 4G connection. This is good, but it can drain your phone's battery faster. This is also why millimeter waves are potentially even more battery intensive than other frequencies. (Among Apple's 5G phones in the US, only the new SE does not support mmWave).
It's hard to tell which exact version of 5G you're connected to, though. The phone's status bar might say 5G, which just means the carrier's network is available. If you see 5G+, 5G UW, or 5G UC, that could refer to both midband and ultrafast millimeter-wave networks. It's like going to a liquor store where every bottle isn't labeled, and you have no idea what kind of drink you're getting or how strong it is.
If you use your phone or tablet a lot away from home, a fast 5G signal means you don't have to worry about connecting to potentially risky public Wi-Fi. It also lets you do more data-intensive activities, like playing a multiplayer online game like Minecraft, or live-streaming different angles of a game from a football stadium equipped with mmWave. The inconvenients ? Faster battery drain and potentially spotty coverage.
Enabling the 5G Auto setting activates Smart Data mode, which switches the device connection to 4G for less data-intensive tasks to save power.
Photo: Nicole Nguyen/Wall Street Journal
Manage your battery
If you want your iPhone battery to last longer, you can make it use less 5G. Go to Settings > Cellular > Voice & Data and set Connectivity to 5G Auto. (It may also be under Cellular Data Options, depending on your carrier.) This turns on Smart Data Mode, a setting that will dynamically switch your connection between 5G and LTE to save power.
The feature will rely on 5G to, say, download a big movie, but when performing background tasks like checking email, the phone will revert to LTE to save battery.
Your iPhone may also automatically switch to LTE once it reaches a certain battery level. Open the Shortcuts app and go to the Automation tab to create a personal automation. Select Battery Level and set the desired percentage. On the next page, tap Add action and find Set voice and data. Set Voice and Data mode to LTE.
The easiest option is to turn off 5G until you need it. I set my cellular connection to LTE because I want to squeeze every extra minute out of my iPhone 13 Mini's relatively small battery. But it's there when, for example, I'm freaking out downloading a 10-hour oceanscape at the airport so I can relax on a long flight.
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Write to Nicole Nguyen at nicole.nguyen@wsj.com
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