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How to turn off 5G on your Android phone
The 5G network promises faster data speeds and lower latency connections, but the tradeoff is that you may notice your battery draining faster than usual. Additionally, 5G still isn’t very prominent outside of major cities in the US and Europe. So, you may want to switch to 4G LTE networks instead while traveling or to save power. Here’s how to turn off 5G connections on your Android phone. If you are on iOS, we also have a guide for how to turn off 5G on your iPhone.
QUICK ANSWER
To turn off 5G on your Android phone, navigate to Settings > Connections > Mobile networks and select Network mode. You can now choose which 5G option you want or switch to LTE or 4G.
KEY SECTIONS
How to turn off 5G on your Samsung Galaxy phone
To turn off 5G on your Samsung phone, go to Settings and tap Connections. Next, select Mobile networks.
From there, tap Network mode to select which network you want to connect to.
Here’s an additional tip; in the Power saving settings, you can select the toggle to Turn off 5G so it will never reconnect to the network. See our guide on Adaptive battery for Android for more details on the pathway to turn off 5G.
How to turn off 5G on your Google Pixel phone
To turn off 5G on your Pixel phone, navigate to Settings –> Network, select SIMs, and scroll down to tap Preferred network type. Then, just select something other than 5G.
That’s all there is to turn off 5G on your Android phone. The pathway is relatively similar on all devices.
FAQs
Yes, you may notice your battery draining faster than usual when connected to a 5G network. The impact on the battery life is roughly 10% more battery usage on 5G than on 4G.
At this time, the 5G networks are only used for data connections and are not yet capable of carrying phone calls and messages.
To turn on 5G on your Android phone, navigate to Settings > Connections > Mobile networks and select Network mode. You can now choose which 5G option you want.
Virtually all flagship smartphones launched in 2020 now support 5G, with sub-6GHz network support being the most popular. See our guide to the best 5G phones for a complete list.
In the United States, some carriers, such as AT&T, have removed the option from devices that use its network. The only way to get around this is by contacting your network provider or using a third-party Hidden Settings app.