[190917]

Hi Kim – I have been a long time listener and am a former member of Kim’s Club, now transitioned to Kim’s Community!

My family of five all have iPhones and we want to upgrade to newer iPhones. All currently have iPhone 11s…I still use my original SE! I like the smaller size and that is why I like the 12 mini. However, the local Verizon store is cautioning us from buying iPhone 12s because they reportedly drop calls outside of 5 G and LTE service. While we live in a community of around 50,000, we are surrounded by farmland and don’t have to travel very far to lose 5 G and LTE service…35 miles north to Washington State University or the University of Idaho, 100 miles north to Spokane, 250 miles south to Boise, or 400 miles to the Pacific coast. A friend of ours, who recently upgraded to the mini, confirmed that her coverage outside of town is not very good and that she doesn’t have service in an area where we currently have it with our older iPhones. Verizon says it has something to do with the bandwidth capabilities programmed into the 12s and Verizon recommend staying with iPhone 11s, if we want coverage while traveling outside of the area. I am dumbfounded that Apple would put out a new product with reduced capability! When people spend hundreds of dollars on a new phone, especially a name brand phone, they expect at the least the same, or better, performance…not worse!!! There are millions of people who don’t live in large, vast, metropolitan areas with nonstop 5 G/LTE coverage. Is Apple aware of this issue? Are they going to fix it? Is there an update coming? Perhaps there is an iPhone 12 second generation in the works? It is almost as if the iPhone 12 is ahead of its time…while being 5 G capable, the nation’s cell system is far from being fully 5 G developed. We don’t want to leave the Apple ecosystem, but we want our phones to work as well as our old ones, even my old SE!! And having a phone while traveling, for safety, is one of the reasons people have a cell phone! But the fact that Verizon is telling people not to get this phone, that’s significant!!! Have you heard of this Kim? Any recommendation?

[Author]

Replies