Does Surface Pro 9 have 4G LTE or 5G?

Surface Pro 9 is the latest Surface device from Microsoft. One of the things that sets it apart from other Surface products is that it supports 5G. So you might be wondering if the Surface Pro 9 has 4G LTE or 5G. The answer to this question is that it technically supports both 5G and 4G LTE if you think about it in terms of internet speed. Depending on where you live and what cellular coverage you have, you’ll either get 5G data speeds or 4G LTE speeds with your new Surface Pro 9 and a nano SIM or eSIM.

In this guide, we’ll dive more into the technology behind the Surface Pro 9’s support for 5G. We’ll also explain why it supports 4G LTE speeds as well.

Why does Surface Pro 9 support 4G LTE and 5G speeds

If you bought a Surface Pro 9 with a 5G model, you’ll want to pay close attention to the spec sheet on Microsoft’s website. This is what we did and found a note about the connection types supported by the device. As you can see, there are currently two markets for 5G at the moment. There are mmWave markets and sub-markets 6. mmWave is the fastest 5G, and Sub-6 is a type of 5G slower than 5G speeds, and closer to 4G LTE speeds. The Surface Pro 9 supports both forms of 5G, although if you’re not in a millimeter wave country, the model you buy will only have less than 6.

mmWave markets are markets in which mobile carriers have new 5G networks separate from the existing 4G LTE infrastructure. Unfortunately, mmWave is only very popular in densely populated cities like New York, and it also has a short-range signal, which is why mobile carriers have 5G subnets instead of 6. But mmWave is the true 5G speed. That’s why the Surface Pro 9 supports mmWave 5G technology on these waves.

If your carrier uses these bands, you get true 5G on the Surface Pro 9. If not, it will be backward compatible with 4G LTE as we’ll explain in the next section.

• 5G-NR NSA (mmWave): v15 DL 64 QAM up to 4.2 Gbps 4xDL CA (400MHz), 2 x 2 MIMO
• 5G-NR NSA (mmWave): Version 15 UL 64 QAM, 2xUL CA (200MHz), 2 x 2 MIMO
• 5G-NR NSA Bands (mmWave): n257, n260, n261

Sub-6 5G is the most popular type of 5G, mainly because it’s easier and cheaper to roll out. But as common as it is, it’s not quite as fast as mmWave 5G. It is closer to 4G LTE speeds, because it uses lower frequency bands, below 6 GHz. Microsoft lists that the Surface Pro 9 supports the following 6 subbands.

• 5G-NR NSA (Sub-6): Version 15 DL 256 QAM up to 2.8 Gbps, 4 x 4 MIMO
• 5G-NR NSA (Sub-6): Version 15 UL 256 QAM
• 5G-NR NSA Bands (Sub-6): n1, n2, n3, n5, n7, n8, n20, n25, n28, n38, n40, n41, n66, n71, n77, n78, n79
• Gigabit LTE – Professional Edition 15 with 4×4 MIMO and LAA
• LTE DL Cat 20, 256 QAM up to 2 Gbps, 5xDL CA
• LTE UL Cat 13, 64 QAM Contiguous 2X ULCA
• LTE bands: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 46, 48 , 66, 71
  WCDMA: 1,2,5,8

So, there you are. Here’s a look and explanation of whether the Surface Pro 9 has 4G LTE or 5G. Supports 5G on the model that comes with a Qualcomm processor.