The best phones with a headphone jack and speakers in 2024
Best 5G Phones Of 2024
$800 at AmazonBest Android phone for most people
Samsung Galaxy S24
View details $828 at AmazonBest 5G foldable phone
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5
View details $355 at AmazonA great, affordable Samsung Galaxy phone
Samsung Galaxy A54 5G
View details $250 at AmazonBest budget OnePlus phone
OnePlus Nord N30 5G
View details $700 at Best BuyBest high performance flagship with a lower price
OnePlus 12
View details Show 7 moreNearly every phone from Apple, Samsung and Google, including the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro, Galaxy S24 Ultra and Pixel 8 lineup, is 5G-ready. That means these smartphones come equipped to deliver the fastest possible data speeds across your wireless network. While they tend to be pricey, there are plenty of affordable 5G options like the Google Pixel 6A and Apple's cheapest, the 2022 iPhone SE. Rest assured, you should be able to find a good 5G-ready phone at a price you're comfortable with.
Although it won't replace 4G in its entirety, 5G is the next generation of mobile connectivity. 5G works fast, and many industries and products can benefit from the upgraded network, including drones, self-driving cars and internet-of-things devices. Its growth across the US, the UK and the wider world has been fast, but it's still not everywhere quite yet, so make sure 5G coverage is available -- or at least coming soon -- in your area before you spend your cash on a 5G-enabled handset. With 5G handsets being offered by every major phone manufacturer now, it can be difficult to work out which is best for you. We've done some of the hard work and put together a list of our top 5G-enabled phones that you can go and buy right now.
What is the best 5G phone right now?In 2024, there isn't one specific phone that stands conspicuously head and shoulders above the others. If you're an iOS user the best phone you can buy is the iPhone 15 Pro. It has an A17 Pro processor, a new main camera with a larger and higher megapixel sensor, a new Action button and the Dynamic Island (a display cutout that shows system alerts and background activities).
If you're on Android, our favorite phone is the $800 Samsung Galaxy S24. The battery life is amazing. That's not the only reason it's our pick as the best Android phone. It gets seven years of major Android updates and the cameras are good (there's even a 3x telephoto lens for zooming). Then there are all the AI features. Most are just OK, but Circle to Search is outstanding. Samsung didn't reinvent the phone, but it did take a great phone (the Galaxy S23) and make it better.
Best 5G phones of 2024Hide our expert take
Apple's iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max bring a variety of changes, including a new customizable Action button, powerful camera upgrades, thinner bezels, a lightweight titanium design and the new A17 Pro processor. All these upgrades come together to make for an experience that feels fresh and fast compared with older generations.
It's the most expensive iPhone you can buy, especially if you opt for the larger Max version, but if you want the high performance and stellar camera quality of Apple's top phone, then the iPhone 15 Pro is for you. Read our iPhone 15 Pro review.
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What impresses me the most about the Samsung Galaxy S24 isn't the new Galaxy AI features, brighter screens or solid cameras. It's the battery life. After testing, I can say the larger battery in the Galaxy S24 has no trouble plowing through a long day of use on a single charge.
The S24 is a wonderful, well-built phone that is excellent right out of the box just as the nearly identical S22 and S23 were before it. This similarity to the S22 and S23 can be viewed as either a strength because the design reflects three years of refinements or a weakness. After all, features like the camera hardware are essentially identical to what came out in 2022. All of this is overshadowed by the great battery life. You'll never hear anyone complain about getting too much battery life. Read our Samsung Galaxy S24 review.
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With the Dynamic Island, a USB-C port for more convenient charging and an upgraded camera with a higher resolution and a crisper zoom, the iPhone 15 is a significant upgrade for those with older iPhones. It feels like a scaled-back version of the iPhone 14 Pro, making Apple's entry-level iPhone 15 feel like a bigger leap forward than last year's.
The iPhone 15 is available in two size options: the 6.1-inch iPhone 15 and the 6.7-inch iPhone 15 Plus. They run on the same chip as the iPhone 14 Pro, the A16 Bionic, which should bring notable performance upgrades to those with an iPhone that's several years old. These phones also have Apple's second-generation ultra wideband chip, enabling a new feature that makes it easier to find friends or family members in a crowd.
Last year's iPhone 14 Pro may be a better choice if you can still find it through third-party retailers at a discount, particularly because it has a dedicated telephoto lens. The iPhone 15 is the most exciting upgrade Apple's standard iPhone has seen in years. Read our iPhone 15 and 15 Plus review.
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The Pixel 8 has many of the features of the more expensive Pixel 8 Pro but comes in a slightly smaller package and with a smaller price tag to match. You'll find the Tensor G3 processor on board, along with Android 14 software that includes AI tools like the generative image wallpaper creator. It also comes with the same guarantee of at least seven years of security updates so this phone will still be going strong in 2030 -- as long as you look after it.
The rear cameras are more cut back here, as the base Pixel 8 lacks the 5x optical zoom camera seen on its bigger brother. I love that zoom lens, but then I'm a professional photographer. If photography isn't a priority for you, you can save yourself a bundle and opt for the cheaper of Google's new range. The Pixel 8's higher price $699 seems worth it and makes you realize just how incredibly affordable the $599 Pixel 6 and 7 were and still are. Read our Google Pixel 8 review.
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With a sharper 5x optical zoom, a faster new processor and that familiar giant display and 100x digital zoom, the Samsung's "Ultra" phone remains a top choice for mobile photographers who want plenty of screen space. The Galaxy S24 Ultra is also one of the first phones with Samsung's new Galaxy AI features, which include tools for translating text messages and phone calls instantly and Circle to Search, a new gesture that lets you launch a Google search for almost anything simply by drawing a circle around it. Like the previous two generations, the Galaxy S24 Ultra comes with an embedded S Pen for those who like jotting down notes or doodling. Perhaps best of all, Samsung has committed to updating these devices with new versions of Android for seven years, meaning it shouldn't feel out of date anytime soon.
Still, there are some important downsides to consider. At $1,300, this phone is expensive, so be sure to look for trade-in discounts if you plan to upgrade. And for that high price, I had hoped Samsung would've added extra Galaxy AI features that are specific to the Ultra -- perhaps some that take advantage of the S Pen. Galaxy AI is the same on all Galaxy S24 devices, and it'll be coming to the Galaxy S23 lineup soon too, so you don't have to splurge on Samsung's top-of-the-line phone if you just care about those features. Read our Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review.
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The Galaxy Z Flip 5 is the biggest leap forward Samsung's flip phone has seen in years. Samsung has significantly expanded the size of the cover screen located on the outside of the device, meaning you can look up directions, take photos and send messages without opening the phone. It's this combined with the Z Flip's solid battery life and sturdy design that makes it a top pick.
The Z Flip 5 may be our favorite flip phone, but there are still some drawbacks to be aware of. At $1,000, it's still expensive for a phone without a telephoto camera. Not all apps work natively on the front screen as they do on the Motorola Razr Plus. Read our review of the Galaxy Z Flip 5.
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Although it's one of the cheapest phones you can buy from Samsung, the Galaxy A54 still packs great features, like 5G connectivity, a decent multiple rear camera setup, solid battery life and power enough for your everyday essentials. It looks pretty, too, and it's one of the few remaining phones that lets you expand the built-in storage using microSD cards.
It's a great all-round budget phone, although generally, we found that the Pixel 6A offers better camera and processor performance, and it costs less than the Samsung. Read our review of the Galaxy A54 5G.
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The OnePlus Nord N30 5G includes a lot of features for the money, but its 50-watt charging speed is a standout for this price range. The phone can charge from 0% to 100% in 45 minutes, and most other phones that cost $300 or less need 90 minutes to two hours to do the same thing. Its large 6.72-inch 1,080p display runs at a 120Hz refresh rate and makes apps, games, websites and streaming video animate smoothly.
It's worth calling out that the 108-megapixel main camera -- despite being an astounding megapixel number on a phone -- takes photos that are only marginally better than what I usually see from phones in this price range. While the OnePlus does face stiff competition from Google's Pixel 6A -- especially when the Pixel is discounted to $270 -- it does include a lot of functionality for its price. Read our OnePlus Nord N30 5G review.
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The Pixel 6A may be more than a year old, but its often discounted price still makes it a tempting choice for Pixel fans on a budget. CNET's Lisa Eadicicco called it the "best Android phone under $500" in her initial Pixel 6A review in 2022, calling out how it keeps the same Tensor chip seen in the higher-end Pixel 6 and many of its features.
The phone is slightly smaller than the Pixel 6, featuring a 6.1-inch OLED display and a refresh rate of 60Hz. It has a similar camera to the Pixel 5A, including a 12.2-megapixel main camera and a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera. By including the Tensor chip, photos can benefit from its Real Tone skin tone feature, Face Unblur, Night Sight for darker photography and the Magic Eraser for removing unwanted elements from a photo. Read our Pixel 6A review.
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The iPhone SE may be the cheapest phone Apple produces, but it still comes with superfast 5G. While it lacks the camera prowess of the much more expensive iPhones, it runs the latest iOS 17 software and uses the same processor found in some of the higher-end models, making it a great phone for everyday use and light gaming. Read our iPhone SE (2022) review.
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While we had some early issues with the Google Pixel 8 Pro -- mostly with its cameras shooting Raw files -- further testing and software updates from Google meant we eventually came away thinking quite highly of the Pixel 8 Pro. It's got a lot going for it, from its slick design and easy-to-use Android 14 software to its rear camera setup, which can take some genuinely beautiful images. Google has sprinkled a variety of new AI features throughout the phone too, including a tool that uses generative AI to create wallpapers for the phone and a camera feature that allows you to combine different faces from a series of burst images of a group of friends to make sure that everyone looks their best.
One of the best updates is Google's commitment to providing seven years of security updates to the Pixel 8 series, meaning this phone will still be safe to use in at least 2030. While we haven't been as impressed with this year's 8 Pro as we were with the 7 Pro, it's still a great phone to consider, especially if you're keen to hold on to your phone for longer. Read our Google Pixel 8 Pro review.
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If fast charging, powerful performance and having a large, bright screen matter most to you in a phone, check out the OnePlus 12. OnePlus' new phone can go from empty to full in less than 30 minutes thanks to its 80-watt charging in the US, a perk that can be helpful if you have a long day ahead and forgot your charger. It runs on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, which feels swift and zippy whether you're playing games or just scrolling around the interface. The OnePlus 12's 4,500-nit peak brightness also makes it ideal for outdoor use, since its screen is noticeably brighter than rivals like the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.
There's room for improvement when it comes to the camera. While shots taken on the Plus 12 are decent, CNET's Andrew Lanxon found nighttime photos look too dark and described the optical zoom as "very hit or miss." It's also worth noting that the OnePlus 12 gets four years of software updates. That would have been fine by 2023's standards, but Google and Samsung now offer seven years of Android updates, which keeps those devices fresh and relevant for a longer period. Read our OnePlus 12 review.
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The $1,400 Sony Xperia 1 V retains all the best features of previous Xperia 1 phones, like a 4K high refresh rate display, expandable storage, cutting-edge cameras with eye-tracking autofocus, a 5,000-mAh battery, a dedicated hardware shutter button and a headphone jack, all wrapped in Sony's lovely, mundane utilitarian design. The phone brims with numerous quality-of-life improvements for its target audience of creative types like photographers, filmmakers, musicians and gamers who want nuanced control over the content they make. Its $1,400 price tag keeps this phone squarely aimed beyond most consumers.
The Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro is a $1,200 gaming phone that takes nearly every feature to the extreme. It has a 5,500-mAh battery, a 6.78-inch AMOLED with a high refresh rate and touch sampling rate, 65-watt wired charging and even a door on the back for a detachable fan to keep the phone's Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip as cool as possible. The software is optimized and easily customized for gaming including touch-sensitive areas on the sides of the phone that double as shoulder buttons for games.
Show moreEvery phone on this list has been thoroughly tested by CNET's expert reviews team. We use the phone, test the features, play games and take photos. We assess any marketing promises that a company makes about its phones. If we find something we don't like, be it battery life or build quality, we tell you all about it.
We examine every aspect of a phone during testing:
We test all of a phone's cameras (both front and back) in a variety of conditions: from outdoors under sunlight to dimmer indoor locales and nighttime scenes (for any available night modes). We also compare our findings against similarly priced models. We have a series of real-world battery tests to see how long a phone lasts under everyday use.
We take into account additional phone features like 5G, fingerprint and face readers, styluses, fast charging, foldable displays and other useful extras. We also weigh all of our experiences and testing against the price so you know whether a phone represents good value or not.
Read more: How we test phones
Show moreConsider last year's models: They can often be a great deal, too. Many companies keep previous generation models of their phones around at a lower price.
Try it out before you buy it: The best way to know if you like a phone is to actually go to a store and try it out.
Prioritize which features are the most important: Do you want a large screen? Are cameras the most important feature for you? What about battery life? Narrow down your choices. This will save you time and money.
Don't discount affordable phones: You can get a great phone that does almost everything that a flagship can do for a fraction of the price.
Save with sales: Companies and retailers usually roll out deep discounts around major holidays, especially Amazon's Prime Day and Black Friday.
Show moreAre 5G phones more expensive?
Yes. As more and more phones are released that support 5G connectivity, the prices of those phones have typically gone higher. Part of the price increase is for the 5G modem. While the majority of phones now include 5G connectivity, not every phone's price has risen. The iPhone 15 Pro still has the same $999 price that the 14 Pro, 13 Pro, 12 Pro, 11 Pro, XS and iPhone X had when each was released.
Show moreIs a 5G phone better than a 4G phone?
Technically, no. A smartphone's cellular connectivity doesn't determine whether a phone is better than another. Having 5G support on a phone does help future-proof it as carriers continue to roll out and upgrade their towers to 5G. Since the majority of phones now come with 5G support, there isn't a way to compare them to 4G ones. For example, the iPhone 15 Pro supports 4G and 5G. There isn't a 4G-only version in the US.
Show more5G Disconnect: Why Your Phone Has It, But Your Home Internet Doesn't
5G has been around for quite some time, but there are still some bumps regarding 5G home internet service. I must confess, sometimes I'm still baffled. One of the questions I'm often asked is, "My provider says I can't get its 5G home internet service -- even though when I'm at home, I can get 5G on my phone. What gives?"
I ran up against this myself back when I switched carriers. I went from AT&T to T-Mobile and was immediately impressed with the 5G performance on my phone. But even though I got T-Mobile 5G cell service at home, my address wasn't eligible for T-Mobile Home Internet. My immediate reaction: Whaaaat?
It's not just T-Mobile. The same applies to Verizon, too. Its 5G home internet product is also not categorically available at all addresses covered by the company's 5G coverage map. Even if you've got Verizon's Ultra Wideband service in your neighborhood, it's not certain you'll be able to sign up for Verizon 5G Home Internet.
Wait, T-Mobile and Verizon offer 5G home internet?Yes. T-Mobile and Verizon use cellular airwaves to offer dedicated 5G home internet plans. Each provider's plan features straightforward, all-inclusive pricing that ditches equipment fees, data caps, term agreements and other added hassles often associated with internet service providers.
T-Mobile Home Internet features one plan for $60 per month ($40 for eligible Magenta Max customers). Verizon offers two plans -- Verizon 5G Home ($50 a month) and Verizon 5G Home Plus ($70 a month). Qualifying Verizon mobile plans can also knock $15-$25 off the price of either plan. Simplicity and a straightforward approach seem to be key for both companies.
Though an AT&T spokesperson shared to CNET that "fiber remains our focus," the company also has a 5G home internet offering: AT&T Internet Air. It provides potentially higher download speeds than its hybrid DSL service (up to 225 megabits per second to a max of 100Mbps for AT&T Internet) and is now available in 95 locations across the US.
Is home internet a side hustle for mobile carriers?I was tempted to think that getting into the ISP game was a lark for these companies, but telecom insider Jeff Moore, principal of Wave7 Research, sees more at play.
"Mobility is the core business for T-Mobile, and for the most part, it's the core business for Verizon," said Moore. "But T-Mobile, in particular, is telling Wall Street that in addition to selling [home internet] services to businesses, it's also saying it's increasingly pushing into rural America. I don't think it's just a PR stunt."
T-Mobile, whose gateway device is shown here, includes equipment in the monthly fee. T-MobileAll of the numbers support Moore's assessment. In its Q1 2024 report, T-Mobile proudly announced it had reached over 5 million customers. That's a pretty impressive number coming just two years after the product's nationwide launch.
Overall, T-Mobile has been aggressive in its pitch. In May 2022, it began its Internet Freedom push, which leans into Americans' dissatisfaction with ISPs and encourages people to "break up with Big Internet" by trying T-Mobile Home Internet. To lure customers, it offers a free, 15-day test drive (so you can try it without changing your current provider) and additional savings of $20 per month with eligible Magenta Max mobile plans.
Verizon has also been ambitious with its offers but is ringing less of an "ISPs are evil" note. That's probably because Verizon Fios -- the company's fiber-optic internet service -- is an ISP and one of the few that's regularly high-rated. In their case, 5G home internet seems less of a blow against "Big Internet" and more of a play to extend the Verizon home internet game beyond the Northeast (Verizon Fios' playground) and out to the rest of the country.
If T-Mobile and Verizon are serious about home internet, why isn't it as available as their overall 5G coverage?When my colleague Eli Blumenthal tested Verizon 5G Home, he noted that the 5G connection on his iPhone was better than the one for his 5G Home hub.
He was on to something.
A Verizon spokesperson told me that it designed its network with its mobile customers in mind. "We continue to allocate spectrum to ensure our mobile customers have the reliability they've come to expect from Verizon," they said via email. "As we deploy more spectrum -- in excess of what our models show we need for the highest reliability for our mobile customers -- we are able to offer 5G Home service as well."
Verizon also includes its 5G equipment in your monthly fee. Sarah Tew/CNET5G allows for a greater connection density -- approximately 1 million devices per square kilometer -- than previous generations of cellular connectivity. Is that a lot? Yes, it's about 100 times better than 4G, but it's not limitless. Because a home internet product puts a heavy capacity usage on a mobile network, Moore believes T-Mobile has also been judicious about how it's selling home internet.
He pointed me to a YouTube interview given by Kendra Lord, T-Mobile's director of geospatial engineering and analytics, where she likened 5G home internet availability to the number of seats on a plane.
"It's not only the number of households that we believe could get [T-Mobile Home Internet]," she said, "but how many within a given sector we could say yes to."
A spokesperson corroborated that mindset when I contacted T-Mobile for further insight. "There are still many households that do not qualify for Home Internet yet, even though they may get 5G on their mobile device -- and that's intentional," I was told via email.
"Our fixed wireless Home Internet runs on the extra capacity on our wireless network. In some areas, we have extra capacity on the network, but in others, we don't. So, we allocate access to Home Internet on a sector-by-sector, home-by-home basis."
In other words, it's entirely possible that I could get 5G cellular service in my home, and my next-door neighbor might even have T-Mobile Home Internet. However, my address might not be serviceable for that home internet product due to the capacity limits for my area's cellular coverage.
So the next time you ask, "Why can't I get 5G home internet even though I have 5G on my phone at home?" I advise you to hang tight. Both carriers are actively optimizing their networks for mobile first and home internet second, in a dynamic process that changes month to month. 2024 could be your year to try 5G for your home's broadband connection.
What Is 5G? Speeds, Coverage, Comparisons, And More
SOPA Images / Getty Image For years, 5G mobile networking has been the golden goose egg that many mobile device manufacturers and carriers have been striving for. And now more than ever, that dream is very much a reality. 5G connectivity can be found on everything from iPhones to Android hardware, and even some third-party mobile devices. But is there really that big of a difference between 5G and 4G/LTE? The simple answer is yes, but nothing's ever just black and white, especially when we're talking about consumer tech.
Not to worry though: We've been researching and working with 5G devices for a long time here at Digital Trends. To help you through the weeds on the subject, we've put together this 5G guide to give you all the mobile know-how you'll need.
What is 5G?Simply put, 5G is the fifth generation of mobile networking that is slowly replacing 4G/LTE networks. And 5G offers the potential for dramatically faster download and upload speeds than 4G networks, plus considerably lower latency — the time it takes devices to communicate with wireless networks.
Also, 5G networks are inherently more efficient, handling more connections per tower and at faster speeds per device. It is also designed to work across a wider range of radio frequencies (aka spectrum), opening up new possibilities in the midrange and extremely high frequency (EHF) mmWave (millimeter-wave) bands for carriers to expand their network offerings. Because 5G is an entirely new technology that operates on new frequencies and systems, 4G-only phones are incompatible with the new 5G networks.
The first 5G networks commenced deployment in 2019, but the groundwork for the next-generation network was laid years earlier. The 5G standard architecture was created in 2016, at which point every company and person involved from both the network and consumer sides could start making devices that were compliant with the new 5G standard.
At this point, 5G hasn't hit total market saturation quite yet — but it's getting close. It takes a considerable amount of investment to build an entirely new network. For example, 4G/LTE took about three years to reach mainstream status following its initial 2010 deployment in the U.S. However, 4G/LTE didn't have to suffer through the same growing pains as the newer 5G technology since it was easier to deploy by comparison. All major U.S. Carriers used the same basic 4G/LTE technology.
With 5G, carriers have had to take unique approaches in working around existing 4G/LTE deployments while also working to acquire licenses for the higher frequencies that are necessary to deliver on the biggest promise of 5G: ultrafast gigabit speeds. That's taken more time, and there have been a few roadblocks along the way.
It will likely still be a year or two before 5G becomes the dominant network worldwide, but we're definitely getting closer, particularly in the U.S. T-Mobile already boasts that its fastest 5G coverage is available to 260 million people, and it expects that to grow to over 300 million. While T-Mobile had a big head start over its rivals, the other companies are catching up quickly. Not too long ago, Verizon announced it had surpassed the 200 million mark.
Those numbers also only refer to the carriers' enhanced 5G networks. Depending on the carrier, standard low-band 5G already reaches 85% to 95% of the U.S. Population. While these lower-band frequencies don't deliver the same impressive speeds, they offer other benefits — and the ability to replace 4G/LTE.
How does 5G network technology work?Like 4G, 5G technology operates on a wide range of radio spectrum allotments, but is capable of running on a wider range than current networks. With 5G, there are three distinct frequency ranges that work in different ways. The most common form of 5G has traditionally been referred to as Sub-6, but that's more recently been divided into two subcategories. Beyond that is mmWave, which operates on significantly higher frequencies — with some important tradeoffs.
Sub-6 (Low-Band): Short for Sub-6GHz, the term Sub-6 technically includes all 5G frequencies that operate below that 6GHz threshold. However, in the early days of 5G, that was almost entirely made up of low-band frequencies below 2GHz — the same spectrum that had been used for years by 2G, 3G, and 4G/LTE networks. Most carriers began their 5G deployments using these frequencies as it was the easiest and most affordable way to start; 5G hardware could share the same towers and airwaves used by 4G/LTE service, and since low-band frequencies travel much farther and more effortlessly penetrate walls, trees, and other obstacles, carriers also didn't have to put up a huge number of new towers to blanket areas with 5G coverage. However, there was a downside to using this low-band spectrum: 5G performance wasn't significantly faster than the 4G/LTE services that came before. In fact, it could actually be slower in some cases, as 5G traffic had to yield the digital right-of-way to older 4G/LTE signals using the same frequencies.
mmWave: At the other end of the 5G spectrum is millimeter wave, a swath of EHF spectrum where 5G currently operates at frequencies between 24GHz and 39GHz, although it's likely to expand even higher in the future. As the name suggests, these frequencies have a very short wavelength, which means they don't travel very far at all — a couple of city blocks at best. The upside is that 5G can deliver staggering performance over mmWave — easily reaching 4Gbps download speeds under ideal conditions. More significantly, this higher capacity also allows for better coverage in densely packed areas like stadiums, concert venues, and airports. However, to blanket an area with this incredibly fast coverage requires thousands of small network cells — covering 95% of New York City would require nearly 60,000 individual mmWave towers. This is why Verizon's early 5G coverage, which relied solely on mmWave, was available only in the downtown cores of a few major cities.
Sub-6 (midband/C-band): To deliver on the promise of 5G, carriers and regulators needed to find a happy medium between the ultrafast but extremely short-range mmWave and the lower-band frequencies that offered expansive range but no meaningful improvement in speed over the 4G/LTE networks that 5G is supposed to replace. The answer was found in a (mostly) new range of midband frequencies, ranging from T-Mobile's 2.5GHz network to the 3.7GHz to 3.98GHz C-band spectrum licensed by Verizon and AT&T. This spectrum has become the sweet spot for 5G, offering substantially better range than mmWave while delivering near-gigabit performance levels that leave 4G/LTE networks in the dust.
Today, the major U.S. Carriers have deployed 5G in all three of these spectrums, although they've taken slightly different approaches. Verizon began with mmWave in a handful of cities before launching its nationwide low-band 5G network in late 2020 and then rolling out its C-band frequencies in early 2022. T-Mobile started with a very low-band 600MHz network that allowed it to be first to offer nationwide 5G in all 50 U.S. States, and then used the 2.5GHz midband spectrum it acquired from its 2020 merger with Sprint to get a head start on building out its faster 5G network. It deployed faster mmWave only in places like stadiums, where the higher capacity was absolutely necessary. AT&T has trailed slightly behind both its rivals; it has a large low-band 5G network, and like T-Mobile, it uses mmWave transceivers to cover denser areas, but its C-band deployments have only reached about a dozen cities so far.
How fast is 5G?Clearly, 5G is faster than 4G, but by how much? The short answer is: "it depends." The standards for telecommunications technologies, developed by 3GPP, are somewhat complex, but here's a general rundown of the speeds 5G is capable of reaching under optimal conditions:
In the real world, actual 5G speeds vary widely. Eventually, midband networks will be able to deliver speeds of multiple gigabits per second (Gbps) through technologies such as Carrier Aggregation, but for now, you can expect to see speeds of around 200Mbps to 400Mbps if you're on a midband/C-band network and under 100Mbps on low-band 5G services. Those numbers may go higher under ideal conditions — we've measured gigabit speeds on C-band frequencies, but that's far from typical. Normally, you'll need to be relatively alone near a mmWave transceiver to get those kinds of speeds. Remember that you're also sharing whatever bandwidth is available with everyone else using that same tower, so your performance will drop during peak times of the day in a busy area.
If you're on low-band 5G, you'll likely find that your connection is no faster than 4G/LTE. In some cases, it may even be slower. This is largely due to 4G/LTE traffic still using those frequencies. Early low-band 5G deployments were "piggybacked" onto 4G/LTE towers using a technology known as Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS). This allows 5G and 4G/LTE traffic to coexist on the same airwaves, but since DSS is a 5G feature, it's the 5G traffic that has to make room for the 4G/LTE signals. The good news is that low-band 5G performance will improve as more folks move to 5G smartphones, and there's less 4G/LTE traffic to contend with.
5G UW vs. 5G UC vs. 5GESince midband 5G offers much better performance than the lower-band 5G frequencies, each carrier has worked hard to promote these enhanced 5G services with unique brand names and special status bar icons on your phone. This lets customers know when they're using the best 5G, while also setting them apart from their rivals.
AT&T was actually the first to introduce a special 5G brand, but unfortunately, that initial attempt just muddied the waters as it didn't even represent a real 5G network. AT&T's so-called 5G Evolution (5GE) network was little more than a marketing stunt; the carrier rebranded its newly upgraded 4G/LTE Advanced network, claiming it was the first step in the "evolution toward 5G." In reality, it was the same 4G/LTE network technology that Verizon and T-Mobile already offered, falsely labeled to make people think that AT&T had beaten the others to the punch at rolling out 5G.
After getting rightfully pilloried for that silly move, AT&T got a bit more conservative with its 5G plans. However, it was still the first to introduce a unique name in early 2020 to distinguish its mmWave service from its broader low-band network. AT&T called this "5G Plus" (5G+), and it was initially available in the downtown cores of about 35 cities. In early 2022, AT&T added its new C-band spectrum to the 5G+ network, increasing coverage in about a dozen U.S. Cities over the course of that year.
Verizon followed in late 2020 with 5G Ultra Wideband (5G UW). Unlike AT&T, this was a rebranding of what had been its entire 5G network up to that point since Verizon began 5G solely with mmWave. The 5G UW name became necessary safter Verizon's CEO took the opportunity to get on stage at Apple's iPhone 12 launch event and announce the carrier's new 5G Nationwide service — a low-band 5G network that would bring 5G to the rest of the country. As with AT&T, Verizon expanded its 5G Ultra Wideband service to encompass the new C-band frequencies in early 2022, increasing 5G UW coverage to more than 100 million customers practically overnight.
Meanwhile, T-Mobile had been slowly building out a 2.5GHz midband network since it acquired that spectrum from Sprint in 2020. The "Uncarrier" already offered better capacity and speed than its rivals, which had to acquire new C-band spectrum from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and battle fears from the aviation industry. However, T-Mobile didn't fully brand its midband network until 2021, dubbing it 5G Ultra Capacity (5G UC) to distinguish it from its low-band 5G Extended Range network.
Where is 5G coverage available?So, when should you expect to have 5G available in your neighborhood? If you live in a relatively populated area, at least one — and probably all — of the major carriers already offer 5G. T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon have all long since rolled out their "nationwide" networks using low-band 5G. Today these networks collectively cover over 90% of the U.S. Population.
All three major U.S. Carriers are continuing to build out their midband 5G networks, and while Verizon and T-Mobile now cover a majority of the U.S. Population, it's likely to take several years before we reach ubiquitous 5G coverage. Each 5G carrier also has a slightly different 5G rollout strategy, so your experience will vary greatly depending on your carrier. Here are all the details we currently have concerning each carrier's deployment plans.
VerizonVerizon's 5G nationwide low-band network is technically smaller than AT&T and T-Mobile's, as it launched much later. Verizon spent years building out mmWave before it started work on its low-band 5G Nationwide deployment, which only arrived in late 2020. Since it began with mmWave, Verizon offers a much greater number of smaller mmWave cells, covering the downtown cores of over 80 cities. That's still not enough to provide a meaningful, reliable, and widespread mmWave network, but Verizon has expanded that significantly over the last year with its new C-band coverage. As of March 2023, Verizon's 5G Ultra Wideband network reaches 200 million people. As the carrier continues to expand to more rural areas, its smaller low-band network will become considerably less relevant.
Verizon 5G coverage map
AT&TAT&T has a widespread low-band 5G network, with nationwide coverage of around 285 million people. However, the type of 5G connectivity that you get depends on where you live. Like Verizon, it relied heavily on mmWave in the early days, but it also saw the writing on the wall and transitioned to a low-band 5G rollout much sooner. This means less mmWave coverage than Verizon — the core areas of about 39 cities — but a much more expansive low-band network. AT&T's 5G+ service began with this handful of mmWave cells, rolling in the C-band spectrum in early 2022. Nevertheless, AT&T is still playing catch-up with its rivals, and so far, it's only deployed full C-band coverage to about a dozen cities, bringing the total number of cities where 5G+ is offered to around 50.
AT&T 5G coverage map
T-MobileT-Mobile 5G has been leaving its rivals in the dust with robust nationwide coverage and a midband 5G network that covers over 75% of the U.S. Population. This has allowed T-Mobile to boast the fastest median download speeds by a huge margin since far more of its customers are able to access its 5G Ultra Capacity network. T-Mobile was also the first carrier to deploy a nationwide 5G network to all 50 states, although that initial network — now known as 5G Extended Range (5G XR)— relies on the lowest of the low-band frequencies, so it's not particularly fast. However, with 5G Ultra Capacity already covering 260 million people, and T-Mobile promising to extend that to 300 million by the end of 2023, most customers will rarely encounter the carrier's low-band 5G XR network.
T-Mobile 5G coverage map
Best 5G phones available nowIt's tough to find a phone nowadays that doesn't have 5G, thanks to the carriers' aggressive network rollouts and development of more affordable mobile chipsets that include 5G radios. So when you're looking for the best 5G phone, you're really just asking for the best phone overall.
Right now, that means the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro, the Samsung Galaxy S24 and S24 Ultra, the Google Pixel 8, and less expensive phones from OnePlus and Motorola. Each of these phones has 5G — though in some cases, on the cheaper end, you may only get Sub-6 and not mmWave. However, that's nothing to worry about; as we've already mentioned, mmWave is more of a "nice to have" than a requirement, and you're unlikely to even encounter a mmWave signal most of the time, much less need one.
Can you use 5G for home internet?With incredible speeds and low latency, 5G has good potential as a replacement for home wireless networks. That's particularly true in rural areas, where fast wired internet is tough to come by and the only other alternative is satellite internet. While the capability is certainly there, 5G home internet is taking a while to roll out in real numbers.
We're still a few years away from the promise of 5G to bring direct connectivity to every device in our homes, so today's 5G home internet solutions, also known as Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), merely replace your wired broadband router with a 5G device; Wi-Fi and wired Ethernet connections are still used to link everything up within your home.
Verizon 5G home internetVerizon offers 5G home internet starting at $25 per month, and the recent addition of C-band spectrum to its 5G Ultra Wideband service means it's now available in 1,700 cities. Sadly, this still limits access to the service in rural areas where it could be more helpful. Speeds will vary depending on where you live; Verizon has a lookup tool you can use to get an estimate, but don't expect these to rival broadband services unless you live in an area with mmWave coverage.
AT&T 5G home internetAT&T doesn't yet offer 5G home internet to consumers, although its 4G-based fixed wireless access plans are still available for rural areas. This will likely get upgraded to 5G eventually, but there's not much point in doing so right now as AT&T's low-band 5G network doesn't offer any performance improvements, and its 5G Plus (5G+) network doesn't reach enough places yet.
T-Mobile 5G home internetT-Mobile launched in-home 5G internet service in 2021 to augment its nationwide service. For as little as $30 per month (if you're already a T-Mobile Magenta Max subscriber), you can get unlimited internet with speeds that range from 33Mbps to 182 Mbps, depending on where you're located. Unlike its competitors, though, T-Mobile's 5G home internet is available on both its 5G Ultra Capacity and 5G Extended Range networks, making it a great choice for customers in rural areas. It's also the most popular 5G home internet service; since its introduction, T-Mobile is now celebrating 1 million home internet customers.
Potential benefits of 5GThere are many reasons to be excited about 5G beyond mobile communication. While the extra bandwidth and lower latency mean faster performan
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