The Iconic Abbreviations At The Top Of Your iPhone Or iPad Display Have Many Meanings.

Since the introduction of the iPhone, Apple has used a few letters or a small graphic image to inform you of the performance, nature, and quality of your internet signal at a glance.

But with so many generations of cellular technology in use and so many symbols involved, can you decipher them all?

In the following, some of the oldest and newest icons used or used in Apple devices are arranged in the order in the photo below, and we will check them together.

Cellular generations began with an analog service, now called 1G. The first digital service, 2G, is our starting point:

G, E, 3G: These symbols represent 2G, 2.5G (EDGE), and 3G. EDGE was a bridge technology aggregating 2G cellular channels for more throughput than Apple used in iPhones before the company felt 3G chipsets were too battery-hungry. 2G, 2.5G, and 3G networks have either shut down or are slated to shut down in most countries that have deployed 4G and 5G networks. Use much more data transfer. iPhone screen mark

4G: A faster version of 3G, more of a marketing label. The maximum speed of this network was about six megabits per second for downloading and less than two megabits per second for uploading. iPhone screen mark

LTE or 5GE: Both technologies use the 4G protocol. Using the combination of “5G” in “5GE” is pure marketing. The highest data transfer speed in this generation of the cellular network offers a maximum of tens of megabytes per second in download and several megabits per second in upload. iPhone screen mark

5G: The 5G icon appears when the phone is connected to a 5G network, roughly overlapping the frequencies previously used for LTE. Data rates are slightly faster than LTE, but the speed difference isn’t that dramatic.

5G or 5GUC: You may see 5G or 5GUC for connections between 100 and 300 Mbps, depending on the carrier and region.

5 GUW: In the US only (for now), another version of 5G uses a high frequency or millimeter wave band that can transmit data at up to 1 gigabit per second. And some operators call this network “Ultra Broadband.” To indicate the connection to this high-speed network, Apple confusingly shows 5G+. But in other phones, this connection is displayed with 5GUW.

Cell/satellite: The bar icon on the bottom left is familiar to users as it has appeared for decades. The number of bars indicates the signal strength of the mobile network antenna. If two sim cards are active simultaneously in the phone, the second icon from the left shows the antenna signal strength for the primary network at the top and the secondary at the bottom. The point below the bar indicates the signal strength of the secondary network antenna.

Wi-Fi: The familiar waves indicate a weak, medium, or strong connection (left). The central icon oddly has nothing to do with Wi-Fi functionality: it appears when you’ve enabled Wi-Fi calling and are connected to a Wi-Fi network that allows it. The icon on the right, two chains on each other, indicates that the iPhone is connected to the Internet via tethering. (This includes Wi-Fi for Personal Hotspots, Bluetooth, and USB.)