An Apple Sales FAQ sent to retailers and carriers indicates the using an iPhone 12 in Dual SIM mode may slow the device’s cellular data speed to 4G LTE levels.
A 5G iPhone 12 models support Dual SIM mode, which allows it to switch between a physical SIM card and an eSIM using another phone number or carrier. However, an image of an Apple Sales training document that has been posted to Reddit indicates the iPhone 12 will not support 5G on either line when Dual SIM mode is active. The FAQ, entitled “What you need to know about 5G on iPhone,” reads as follows:
“Does 5G work with Dual SIM?”
When using two lines in Dual SIM mode, 5G data isn’t supported on either line and will fall back to 4G LTE. If customers are using eSIM only and are on a 5G-supported carrier and service plan, they’ll have 5G access.
The document suggests that 5G speeds will only be available by disabling one SIM or the other. Such a limitation would be a definite downer for iPhone 12 customers that are looking to use the iPhone 12 for both work and personal lines.
Hopefully, the limitation could be a software issue, and Apple can fix the issue sometime in the near future. The Reddit use that posted the image indicated that is indeed the case, claiming that an update later this year will enable 5G speeds when using an iPhone 12 in Dual SIM mode.
While the above information is allegedly from Apple’s internal training documents, MacRumors notes 5G is not mentioned anywhere in Apple’s Dual SIM support page, which was last updated on September 26. We’ll let you know if we hear any more on this subject.
