iPhone 12 Lineup Enables Personal Hotspot Over Faster 5GHz Wi-Fi

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As noted by MacRumors contributor Steve Moser, and confirmed by Aaron Zollo, the iPhone 12 lineup introduces support for Personal Hotspot tethering over faster 5GHz Wi-Fi, compared to 2.4GHz Wi-Fi on previous iPhones.

iphone mac hotspot
Personal Hotspot over 5GHz Wi-Fi is enabled by default on all iPhone 12 models. In the Settings > Personal Hotspot menu on these devices, there is a new "Maximize Compatibility" toggle that reverts Personal Hotspot to 2.4GHz Wi-Fi when enabled, with Apple noting that this may reduce internet performance on devices that are connected to the hotspot.

iphone 12 personal hotspot 5ghz
The combination of iPhone 12 models supporting higher-speed 5G networks and 5GHz Wi-Fi's higher maximum throughput paves the way for faster Personal Hotspot, but testing will have to be done to confirm the exact speed improvements. Keep in mind that while 5GHz Wi-Fi is faster than 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, it has shorter range, so Personal Hotspot speeds will vary based on the distance of a tethered device to the iPhone.

Personal Hotspot allows an iPhone's cellular data connection to be shared with other devices like a Mac over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or Lightning.

Related Roundups: iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro
Buyer's Guide: iPhone 12 (Caution), iPhone 12 Pro (Caution)
Related Forum: iPhone

Top Rated Comments

poematik13 Avatar
poematik13
10 months ago
They should have gone over this in the keynote, it's actually a big deal
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
thadoggfather Avatar
thadoggfather
10 months ago
This phone rocks

it may legit be the biggest year over year upgrade in my eyes.

except maybe 3GS to 4.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
zorinlynx Avatar
zorinlynx
10 months ago
I'm a bit irritated that Apple is holding this feature back on prior iPhones; they have the hardware to do personal hotspot on 5GHz bands.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dmylrea Avatar
dmylrea
10 months ago

Here's the Downside to this, if you're a Verizon customer, as I am.

Even with their Top Tier UN-limited option, customers are limited to ONLY 30 GB per month of Hotspot Data, before it gets throttled-down to ONLY 600 Kbps !

So whether your Wi-Fi is 2.4 GHz OR 5 GHz, OR your cellular connection is Fast OR NOT, it doesn't really matter, Users are Forced to Self-Throttle their activities !

Otherwise, you can burn thru your allotment Fast !

Verizon should really increase the monthly HotSpot limit to 45 GB, 50% more !
I don't understand why people think that if their internet is faster, they will use more data? Movies and media consume the same amount of data whether it's LTE or 5G. There are only so many hours in a month. You can't be mass-downloading stuff to your phone. Email, web, etc., still the same amount of data, just faster. Like if the city put bigger water pipes in the street outside your house, are you going to use more water just because the pipes are bigger?

Please explain how faster internet is going to make you use more?
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gretafour Avatar
gretafour
10 months ago
5GmmWave: it’s like Wifi but only works outside down the street!
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
I7guy Avatar
I7guy
10 months ago
This is basically a cool surprise.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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