I understand that in the age of AI removing as many options as possible and automating the rest works out well for businesses for the most part. But for us power users, not so much.
This is what cellular network settings look like in 'Pixel OS' on a normal carrier.
Here's the same screen on the same phone when connected to EE.
Pop quiz: How many differences can you find? 🙃
I'm well aware that I'm not the first one bringing this up but after all these years I'd appreciate if EE provided us with an official response on the matter.
I don't really see why the options to disable GSM or VoLTE would have to be blocked but whatever. I'm sure there's a perfectly silly reason for that.
However, no one is going to talk me into believing that the absence of the option to disable 5G (aka NR) is a good thing.
If we lived in a perfect world where being connected to NR instead of 4G was a better option in every situation, then we wouldn't really be having this discussion. But in the real world, this is not the case most part of the time. Yes, 5G provides faster speeds and better latency but... But only with good reception. Under poor conditions, LTE actually provides a more stable connection and lower battery drain. EE's coverage being what it is - high frequency NR in urban areas that poorly penetrates buildings - we really need to be have the ability to disable it.
Power users are surely aware of the USSD code *#*#4636#*#* but that's hardly a quality fix. Partly because it's obnoxious dialing that five times a day but mostly because it's a temporary fix. Wiped after reboot/airplane mode trigger/etc. By the way, the default setting is "NR/LTE/WCDMA/GSM" and the prefer 4G option is "GSM/WCDM/LTE (PRL)". I gleaned this from enabling power saver mode which among other things automatically disables 5G. 😋
