Google has updated the Features overview page for Android 11 and in it is the iconography that will be used to indicate whether the phone is connected to a 4G or 5G network. And as is tradition, these will probably cause confusion instead of clearing things up.
The “5Ge” label in particular is iffy – that is actually LTE Advanced Pro. Even though it promises impressive theoretical speeds of up to 3Gbps (with carrier aggregation), it is still just a successor to LTE Advanced and not true 5G.
AT&T tried to relabel its LTE Advanced network to “5G E” as far back as 2018, the icon even showed up on iPhones. That didn’t go well, there was even a lawsuit filed against the carrier.
True next gen connections – ones using 5G New Radio – will be labeled 5G and 5G+. That is not particularly clear either as these two are fairly different in terms of capabilities and limitations.
- LTE – plain 4G
- LTE+ – 4G with carrier aggregation
- 5Ge – LTE Advanced Pro
- 5G – NR, sub-6GHz
- 5G+ – NR on millimeter-wave cellular bands
“5G” stands for the sub-6GHz flavor, which has great coverage but isn’t much faster than 4G with carrier aggregation, while “5G+” means mmWave, which can deliver speeds of several gigabits but is easily blocked by trees, rain and even your hand.
This article originally appeared on https://www.gsmarena.com/android_11_will_label_sub6ghz_networks_5g_mmwave_will_be_5g_but_5ge_is_still_lte-news-43326.php
