Bell issued a carrier settings update on Saturday, bringing a new ‘5G Standalone’ network setting for compatible iPhone users.
According to iPhone in Canada reader Ryan, a carrier settings update hit his iPhone 14 Pro Max on Saturday.
What does ‘5G Standalone’ do when you turn it on? Apple says it “uses 5G for all cellular activity, including cellular network connections.” Essentially, if you’re on a 5G cellphone plan, it will only use 5G connections no matter what.
Whereas ‘5G Auto’ only uses 5G “when needed for performance while optimizing battery life.” For ‘5G On’, it uses 5G “whenever it is available, even when it may reduce battery life or performance.”
Back in February, we saw how some carriers rolled out a settings update to bring 5G Auto and 5G On, as part of iOS 16.4 beta.
In Mainland China, 5G Standalone is the default setting.
How to turn on ‘5G Standalone’? On your iPhone running iOS 14 or later, head over to:
In order to use 5G in Canada with a smartphone from Apple you’ll need an iPhone 12 model or later, along with a cellphone plan that supports 5G. That means all ‘unlimited’ data plans from Bell, Telus and Rogers. But soon, Rogers will offer 5G for all customers regardless of plan.
Are you seeing the ‘5G Standalone’ setting on your iPhone with Telus or Rogers? Let us know in the comments below.
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Just turned on for me today!
Yeehaw!
Which model?
iPhone 14 Pro Max!
Oh look, another feature that TELUS will get after a few years.
For iPhone 12 users, it is debatable that you’ll get better performance without standalone mode since the x55 chip doesn’t support carrier aggregation with 5G.
I would expect stand-alone to only be the default option in the future for iPhone 13 and later, but if iPhone 12s still get the option, that’s a welcome development.
Users can make informed choices themselves.
Somehow I don’t have it with my iPhone 13
Same here with 13 Pro. I wonder if its iPhone 14 models only?