First things first, this entire iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro review is chock full of detail, and entertaining to boot.

But this one bit struck me:

And — I’ll repeat — holy shit is Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband fast. Using Ookla’s Speedtest app for testing, my LTE service here in Philly is generally in the range of 50-120 Mbps down, 10-20 Mbps up. Not bad. With 5G Ultra Wideband, I typically saw 1,200-1,800 Mbps down, 25-70 Mbps up. At a few spots I consistently saw 2,300-2,700 Mbps down. Wowza. Apple’s and Verizon’s advertised maximum under “ideal conditions” is 4,000 Mbps. That’s gigabit speeds in real life over a cellular network.

But:

But these mmWave coverage zones really are like Wi-Fi hotspots in terms of range. At some spots, the coverage is literally just half a city block.

And there’s the rub. How often will you be in just the right spot to take advantage of these speeds?

That said, 5G will evolve, and mmWave coverage will continue to grow. If you buy into 5G now, you’ll get the benefit of that growth over time.