Just got the unlocked Pixel 5 yesterday from Google. Insert my 3 year old SIM card to setup and got a message from Verizon saying I need a 5G SIM card. But everything worked fine after that and I got 5G symbol in the notification from time to time at different locations. Does that mean I actually get 5G? Not seeing much of speed improvement though. The max I got was 100/30. Most time was 30/10 -ish with 5G symbol. So, do I still need a "5G SIM"? I know there is no such thing as a 5G SIM. But maybe there is something I need from a new SIM to take full advantage of Pixel 5. Any suggestions?
Those are very good observations and questions. The first thing I would recommend is checking which 5G service you are getting. Keep in mind that there are 2 5G wavelengths your new 5G device will connect to. Take a look here on our website: https://www.verizon.com/coverage-map/. You'll notice there are 5G Nationwide areas and our 5G UW areas which are a smaller and more precise. These 5G UW areas will be where you see those massive speeds that 5G is famous for. - Nick
The Pixel 5 unlocked from google should come with an esim, it's basically a digitally installed sim so you do not need a physical sim when changing carriers. The current consensus is that the esim supports 5G since the phone supports 5G, and other countries support the esim on 5G. However, an older 4G SIM card will not support 5G if you do not pay for the 5G access. SIM cards are encoded with permissions for 4G and 5G. 5G is also not in all parts of the country mmWave does not cover far reaching areas, you'd have to be within the zone itself.
3 steps
Pay for 5G access
if you pay for the access, be near a 5G access point in the 5G covered areas
have a supportive SIM from VZW hence 5G sim, or the esim (esim number is in the settings) - verizon usually disables that from google, so if you buy unlocked from google, you get the esim for sure
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