Support for the latest 5G network standards has percolated down from flagship phones in record time, and it’s already appearing in even $400 smartphones. While it hasn’t been as big of a game-changer as carriers would want us to believe, 5G is a highly marketed feature that customers are apparently paying attention to, so we’re curious to know: Does your phone support 5G?
The new standards have had a rough time of it, from conspiracy theory paranoia to the general uselessness of the fastest mmWave 5G standard, causing phone prices to balloon, given the extra hardware required to use it. Still, most new phones over $500 support some form of 5G now — usually at least so-called “sub-6” 5G — and we’re going to see that further trickle down into the budget segment in the next year or two.
5G may be more marketing hype than utility for most of us (as an anecdote: I get significantly slower speeds on T-Mobile 5G at my apartment in Boston than I do on legacy LTE), but the carrier maps are expanding, and almost every week, some new phone lands with 5G in the name. So, is the phone your pocket 5G-compatible or not? And if the only 5G you get is a status bar icon that says “5Ge,” that’s just AT&T’s deceptive marketing for its existing 4G network, so double check your phone’s specs.
