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iPhone Download Speeds Slower than Android Rivals

Danielle from Leaf and Core
Reading Time: 4 minutes.

The iPhone X crushes other smartphone makers in processor, memory, and graphics speed tests, as well as real world tests that show off these capabilities. But what about cellular network download speeds? It turns out, many modern Android phones destroy the iPhone X in this regard, beating the average iPhone speeds by a wide margin. What’s worse: due to Apple’s legal disputes with QualComm, it’s unlikely that Apple’s iPhones will improve by a wide margin next year. Are Apple’s iPhones doomed to download data slower than their Android counterparts?

The Results

Ookla is best known for being the source of internet speed measurement website speedtest.net. But, as you might expect, they store the results of these tests. They can tell the actual average speeds of cellular carriers, as well as the average download speeds of handsets. What they found will disappoint iPhone users. The iPhone X, despite being Apple’s fastest iPhone ever, downloads data slower on average than many Android devices.

The Samsung Galaxy S9 scored an average of 38.9 Mbps. Compared to the iPhone X, which was 9.2 Mbps slower, at 29.7 Mbps. That’s a little over one megabyte per second. A byte, what you measure storage in, is made up of 8 bits, which is what download speeds are measured in. This is a significant difference, making the iPhone a few seconds slower at large downloads than the Samsung Galaxy S9. Simply downloading a large wallpaper could take a full second or two longer on the iPhone X than on the Galaxy S9.

Why is the iPhone Slower?

The iPhone is slower for two reasons. First, it’s using either a Qualcomm or an Intel cellular chip. The Intel chip is slightly slower than the Qualcomm chip, which reduces Apple’s average speed. However, Apple’s Qualcomm chip is the X16. This has fewer antennas and a slower potential transmission speed than the X20 used in the Samsung Galaxy S9 and other Android smartphones. Samsung’s four antenna array compared to the two antennas on the iPhone X makes it able to download more information at a time, compiling it on device. To put it basically, the data is broken up into parts and downloaded by each antenna separately. Like splitting a pizza with friends, it goes faster than if you try to eat the whole thing by yourself.

The iPhone X is using slower Intel chips, and the Qualcomm chip equipped in some iPhone X devices is slower than the competition. Even the fastest iPhone can’t compete with a Samsung Galaxy S9 or Google Pixel 2. Apple’s using the wrong chips, and it’s not going to get any better.

No Improvement?

Why can’t Apple just upgrade to the Qualcomm X20 and ditch Intel? They’re in the middle of a legal spat with Qualcomm over patents. Both companies are suing each other, and, as a result, have halted business with each other. This year, not a single new iPhone will ship with Qualcomm wireless chips. This means Apple will be stuck with the slower Intel chips. These results might get worse before they get better.

Potential Bias in Results

It’s worth noting that there is some potential for bias in these results. While the speed differences can clearly be measured, the difference between the iPhone X and Samsung Galaxy S9 could have been exaggerated by the conditions the tests were ran under. First, consider when you check your internet speed. It’s likely when you’re noticing something wrong. You don’t scan your internet speed throughout the day at random intervals, you check it when something doesn’t seem right. Ookla massaged their data, removing extra slow or extra fast outliers before calculating a mean. They did this by throwing out the worst results and weighting the median results. This reduces the chance of extreme outliers, but if the trend of all the data is downward, or at least most of it, then the information can be misleading.

Secondly, we can discern that iOS users and Android users are different. iOS users are far more willing to spend money on apps and spend more for their phones. We can infer that they’d also be more willing to spend more on their mobile service as well. It’s also possible that they come to expect more from their devices, their apps, and their networks due to spending this larger sum of money. It’s possible that iOS users may check speedtest.net at the slightest sign of trouble, more frequently than Android users. Since people most frequently check when they notice a dip in speed, it would skew Apple’s results lower. I doubt this difference could be large enough to cause the impact we’re seeing here, and the fact remains that Apple’s using slower wireless chips, but it is a possible area where these results could be exaggerated.

Slow iPhone X Sequels

The sequel to the iPhone X, likely to be revealed next month, probably won’t drastically improve internet download speeds. Unless Apple is working magic, using two Intel wireless modems instead of one, the iPhone will remain slower than competition from Samsung and Google. Will users notice a difference? Probably not a significant one, though there may be occasions where the gap between iPhone and Android is clear.

The iPhone still has a much faster processor and better graphics capabilities over its Android competition. Any difference in download speed could be counteracted by on-device performance. However, it’s possible that people streaming with an iPhone will see more stuttering, and their large files may take a few seconds longer to download than Samsung owners. Without a more sterile testing environment, it’s difficult to say anything conclusive about the impact of these results. But, yes, it seems the iPhone is lagging behind in download speeds, and, no, iPhone fans, it’s not about to get better.

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