An early review of the iPhone 12 found the status bar displays the best available mobile data connection, rather than the speed currently in use. So, even though you may see ‘5G’ to the right of the display notch, you may still be accessing 4G LTE speeds.
A reviewer at The Verge made the discovery while playing around with the new Smart Data mode, the setting which aims to assist users by keeping them on LTE speeds if the handset deems the next-gen connectivity is unnecessary for the task at hand.
