What technology will Apple's 5G iPhone 12 use? There are still different opinions

There's still no definitive answer as to which 5G technology the iPhone 12 will use, and a new supply chain report doesn't fully answer the question, but it does shed some light on the possibility that not all iPhones will use the same 5G network standard.

Let me first give you some background. There are currently two main 5G technologies, called Sub-6 and mmWave (hereinafter referred to as millimeter wave). Both are the frequencies used by 5G signals. Sub-6 uses the low- to medium-frequency band below 6Ghz, while millimeter wave uses the high-frequency band of 24GHz~39GHz.

The former is considered a transitional technology, which provides slightly faster speeds than 4G LTE, but the improvement is not that great. However, this technology can indeed reduce waiting time and does not require such a high density of cellular network base stations. It can be retrofitted with existing 4G base station equipment, so most users can achieve the nominal speed of 100-150Mbps.

Millimeter wave is a faster standard, with theoretical gigabit speeds and actual speeds of about 500Mbps. However, its wavelength is very short, so it is susceptible to interference, which requires a greater density of base stations. This means that it will only be available in very limited areas, such as airports, large bus stations, stadiums and tourist attractions.

The situation between the two is similar to the 2.4GHz and 5GHz of home routers. Although the latter is more powerful, the former has better wall penetration capabilities. In reality, neither can leave the other.

Previously, Digitimes, a media outlet that focuses on the industry chain, reported that Apple's supply chain expects that shipments of millimeter wave 5G iPhones this year will be halved from previous estimates.

Some people speculate that Apple supports different 5G networks by product category, for example, low-end and mid-range models only support Sub-6, while high-end models support both. Others speculate that different 5G networks are differentiated by country.

The current information does not tell us which iPhone models can use millimeter wave 5G, but most sources believe that not all iPhones support millimeter waves.