Like Verizon, T-Mobile has also been telling users to turn off their phone’s 5G connectivity as a tip to save on battery life.
Despite T-Mobile’s marketing talking up 5G, the carrier’s support pages for the Samsung Galaxy S20 and S21 have been pointing out the benefit of deactivating the 5G technology on a smartphone.
The support pages go as far to say a user can “Toggle from 5G/LTE to 2G” as a battery saving-tip. In other words, you should downgrade your phone’s connectivity to cellular technology originally launched three decades ago.
The advice is also pretty explicit. In Verizon’s case, the carrier merely posted a now-deleted tweet on Sunday that implied deactivating the 5G would prevent a battery drain. T-Mobile’s support pages just flat out say toggle down the technology.
The messaging flies in the face of T-Mobile’s marketing around 5G, which has been hyped up as a game-changer for phone data speeds. Christian Smith, the founder of cellular consumer advocate site CoverageCritic.com, noticed the support pages and posted about them on Twitter to point out the hypocrisy.
T-Mobile didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. However, the company has been offering the same advice for 4G smartphones, including Apple’s iPhones. The tips also recommend users can shut off the device's Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS, in addition to lowering the phone’s brightness to conserve battery life. So essentially, T-Mobile is telling users to turn off non-essential items to keep their phone going.
Samsung itself has also warned consumers that 5G can guzzle more energy on a Galaxy smartphone. “You may notice that your phone's battery drains faster than usual while you are connected to a 5G network. This is a limitation of the current 5G networks, and will be improved as the networks expand,” the company wrote in a support page.