Apple's iOS 14.5 update brings a big 5G improvement to T-Mobile's iPhone 12 family

0comments
Apple's iOS 14.5 update brings a big 5G improvement to T-Mobile's iPhone 12 family
While obviously nowhere near as hefty as the iOS 15 update set to be announced in early June and likely to be released at some point in September, the latest iteration of Apple's mobile operating system is bringing a decidedly impressive number of important new features to eligible iPhones.

Chief among the iOS 14.5 changes delivered just yesterday is undoubtedly the ability to unlock your iPhone with your Apple Watch while wearing a face mask, but if you happen to use one of Cupertino's 2020-released handsets on America's leading "Un-carrier", there's another upgrade that could prove more consequential down the line.


Curiously enough, this was not mentioned on Apple's official newsroom when the company announced the public iOS 14.5 rollout and detailed the key features brought to the table as we speak, leaving it to T-Mobile's President of Technology to share a link on Twitter to a more complete rundown from MacRumors.

This highlights the freshly enabled support for 5G Standalone technology on the entire iPhone 12 family, and as pointed out by Neville Ray, Magenta remains the only wireless service provider with "nationwide SA 5G" coverage.

In a nutshell, that guarantees "lower latency and even better" 5G availability compared to devices limited to non-standalone (NSA) 5G connectivity. Made possible all the way back in August 2020, this incredible breakthrough has yet to be matched by Verizon or AT&T, despite the "duopoly's" ongoing efforts to do so.

Recommended Stories

The 5G-capable iPhone 12, 12 mini, 12 Pro, and 12 Pro Max are joining a large and ever-growing group of Android handsets supporting the same state-of-the-art technology following software updates of their own rolled out in the last few months.

While it definitely won't hurt to switch on 5G Standalone service after installing iOS 14.5 and thus no longer rely on outdated 4G LTE technology for any network tasks or functions (where available), you probably shouldn't expect those aforementioned latency and coverage improvements to be very dramatic... in the short term.

This is more about future-proofing the iPhone 12 lineup, and of course, T-Mobile earning bragging rights over the competition. Nothing wrong with that, mind you, as any progress is better than no progress.

Recommended Stories

Loading Comments...
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless