Does the iPhone 12 support standalone 5G?

See especially the footnote under “Learn about 5G options” here.

Use 5G with your iPhone - Apple Support

T-Mobile has almost 0 SA 5G on n41. Just a couple of cities. Your galaxy is lying it is not on standalone 5G on T-Mobile. The iPhone 12 supports standalone 5G. The only time you are likely to encounter SA 5G is when you are in an area that has only low band n71 5G. T-Mobile has a nationwide SA core operating on 600mhz n71 but your phone will not go into SA mode unless there is no other LTE signal and the phone is only able to receive n71. This is pretty much never. So yeah to sum it up in a couple of points. Your Samsung is lying, your iPhone 12 supports SA 5G, you are not likely to ever encounter SA 5G on T-Mobile at this time. Of course a couple of years from now this will change. VoNR aka voice over 5G is a huge challenge that carriers are still trying to solve at this time. You won’t likely see SA 5G for another year or two, as this would require VoNR which isn’t ready for prime time. Just read about dish networks issues with voice calling.

• Did you see this note in that article -> If you turn on Low Power Mode, 5G is disabled except in some cases like video streaming and large downloads. With iPhone 12 models, Low Power Mode disables 5G Standalone (where available).

Call Apple support and ask.

OK, it wasn’t an issue for me because I have T-Mobile, who claim their entire 5G network is standalone. So that’s why I don’t have a switch for it.

But the best way to find out is for the OP to ask T-Mobile.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

OK, it wasn’t an issue for me because I have T-Mobile, who claim their entire 5G network is standalone. So that’s why I don’t have a switch for it.

And I have an 11 Pro which simply doesn't support 5G so, I had no clue what it was.

But the best way to find out is for the OP to ask T-Mobile.

Absolutely. And, they apparently told him that it did support it.

I don’t know what you mean by “standalone” 5G. The 12 supports all 3 5G bands in the US version, and the the two lower bands (excluding millimeter wave) in phones sold in other markets. And, like the 13 and 14, it will revert to 4G/LTE automatically if there is no 5G signal or the 5G signal is weak.

My guess would be that whether or not it's available to you would depend on your carrier. And yes, sometimes the celllar settings are different for one model of phone than for another.

I would also be sceptical of the third party app.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

I don’t know what you mean by “standalone” 5G. The 12 supports all 3 5G bands in the US version, and the the two lower bands (excluding millimeter wave) in phones sold in other markets. And, like the 13 and 14, it will revert to 4G/LTE automatically if there is no 5G signal or the 5G signal is weak.

I found this when poking around:

https://www.rcrwireless.com/20210907/5g/standalone-5g-vs-non-standalone-5g

Your question was does the iPhone 12 support Standalone 5G. I answered you. If you use Low Power mode it doesn’t. There is no longer a toggle for you but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t support it. And Idris covered the rest.

I found this article from May, 2022 that suggests a lot of the 5G Standalone deployment depends on the particular cellular carrier’s methodology and strategy.

https://www.fiercewireless.com/5g/att-will-activate-5g-standalone-core-when-devices-are-ready

The real question is what is your 5G performance? My iPhone T-Mobile 14 on 5G gets between 250 and 500 mbps download. I don’t care whether it is 5G standalone or anything else. What matters is how well it works.

Yes the iPhone 12 supports 5G.

The link was last updated in December 2021.

What is the point of all this?