Does the iPhone 12 support standalone 5G?

I realize when it was updated. It is wrong.

That toggle is no longer available.

The point is I am trying to find out whether I need to purchase an iphone 14 if I do want SA 5G. SA 5G was promised for the 12 two years ago, but it wouldn't be the first time Apple has broken a promise. I am just trying to find out if it is indeed available on the phone or not. Pasting google links does not help. I'm hoping to find someone who actually knows.

Thank you

Thanks for the response but I did not ask if the iphone 12 supports 5G. I have owned one for 2 years. Of course I know it does....what I asked was whether or not is supports SA 5G (standalone 5g). There's a difference.

Thanks but I've read that link dozens of times. It is outdated. The Standalone 5G toggle is no longer available and was only there during beta testing. Others have mentioned that SA 5G has since been incorporated automatically without that toggle, while still others have made mention of SA having been abandoned until ios 16.1 is available. Ask 10 people for a clarification and you're almost assuredly going to get 10 different responses.

So I came here hoping to get a more knowledgable response.

On my 12, field test mode indicates NSA (non standalone). My Galaxy S22 indicates SA (standalone). So this would seem to indicate that the iphone 12 does not do SA 5G and the Galaxy does...right?

Well T-Mobile says the Iphone 12 does and that the app I use on my Galaxy isn't reliable (which would SEEM to indicate that perhaps neither do SA?). So WHO knows...that's why I came here...hoping to find someone who might have some insight.

If you don't know what standalone 5G means...in a nutshell, 5G is depending on the LTE network to do its switching. This is not true 5G and cannot take advantage of everything 5G has to offer.

Standalone 5G is technology that does not rely on the LTE network at all and does have many benefits. T-Mobile has the first SA 5G network and I am a T-Mobile subscriber. I just want to know if I have a phone that supports it, or if I must upgrade to the iphone 14 to get it. T-Mobile support has no clue.

Again, I DID ask T-Mobile. I have honestly asked T-Mobile about a dozen and a half questions during the years I have been with them and have never once gotten a correct answer. (Being very honest about that...I used to do tech support for this stuff years ago). This is why I am so skeptical about what they say.

They told me they support SA 5G with the iphone 12. Field test indicates I am NOT getting SA 5G. They also told me that although Cell Mapper indicates SA 5G using my Galaxy S22 on the same tower, same band, Cell Mapper is wrong (even though the S22 has been touted as a very reliable SA 5G phone).

Soooo...further skepticism on my part and I am sorry if I am sounding so flakey.

Again, the reason I came here was try see if I could find someone who definitively knew what the truth is.

I KNOW Apple has said SA 5G is supported on the iphone 12. But I have read dozens of articles indicating that it was only meant to do so after ios updates and many people claim those updates never came. And once again, field test mode says "NSA" and not "SA" on my phone. Some even suggest that it won't be until ios 16.1 appears before ANY of the iphones actually get the support for SA 5G.

So again, sorry if I sound flakey and I do thank everyone for the help. But I think it will be some time before this is all sorted out.

No need to reply anymore.

Yes this is true for now. But as time goes on, SA will show more and more benefits as it becomes totally non reliant on the LTE backbone.

My iphone 12 gets anywhere between 250 and 900mbps depending on the time of day (due to different amounts of saturation). Yes this is very good but SA will not only get greater and more reliable connection distances but also some tests have indicated speeds up to 3gbps. That is amazingly fast. I am more interested in distances than speed tbh.

I've been reading articles talking about all this and it somewhat appears that T-Mobile may have actually given me the correct answer. From what I am gathering, the N41 band, which is the one that both my phones connect to at my home, is only using SA 5G in a small part of the country, basically for test purposes and SA 5G is more widely available right now on band 71 which I rarely connect to at all. So they may have been right on when they said the Cell Mapper app on my Galaxy S22 wrong.

How is the signal strength on the iphone 14? Have you noticed anything either better or worse than what you got before using this phone?

Yes of course. I do not use low power mode.

But field test mode indicates it is not working in SA 5G on the same exact tower and band that my Galaxy S22 does.

Yes I wasn't responding to you. I just wanted to make one last "generic" messages to all.

Thanks