Apple's iPhones Trail Samsung, Google Devices in Internet Speeds (bloomberg.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Apple's iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and $1,000 iPhone X trail the latest smartphones from Samsung Electronics and Alphabet's Google in download speeds, according to data from Ookla, a company that provides the most popular online service for measuring the speed of an internet connection with its Speedtest app and website. Faster internet data means that users can load websites and start watching movies more quickly, make crisper video calls and get higher-quality video.

[...] Ookla's data are important because they are created by users -- not in a corporate lab -- and encompass the range of random real-world conditions that affect performance like distance from cellular towers and network congestion. Ookla said it hosts millions of tests a day and has done 20 billion in total.

[...] The speed-test data, reviewed by Bloomberg, show that Samsung's Galaxy S9 phones had an average download speed -- across carriers in the U.S. -- of 38.9 megabits per second, based on about 102,000 tests over the past three months. The larger model, the S9+, delivered speeds of 38.4 Mbps, according to a sample size of about 169,000 phone connections. The iPhone X on average downloaded data at 29.7 Mbps, based on a 603,000 tests. The iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone 8 were close behind with speeds of 29.4 Mbps and 28.6 Mbps, respectively.

Comments

Samsumg or Qualcomm propoganda

[Arkham]

There are several stories of Qualcomm and Samsung trying to produce anti-apple propaganda about this, because really they have nothing compelling to say against the iPhone X.

Turns out, none of these differences are even noticeable because the carriers are the limit, not the modem. Also, nobody downloads huge files on their phone because why would you?

If the cellular is fast enough to stream video and load web pages instantly, the rest is just academic.

Re:Samsumg or Qualcomm propoganda

[Anonymous Coward]

Is your Android still vulnerable to the Broadcom hack, BTW? Play store still riddle with malware even after all these years? Millions of malware apps downloaded each month? Two stage droppers adding malware to even "clean" apps after you've downloaded them?

Good luck with all that.

This isn't great, but

[Dixie_Flatline]

...Does anyone actually buy phones based on their max LTE download speed? Most of us have quotas and are trying as hard as possible not to burn through them. I've got a 6GB plan, which is big for Canada (I know how sad it is in comparison to Europe's download caps, don't @ me) so I spend a lot of time making sure I do my downloads over wifi, and even then, LTE on my iPhone 7 is usually faster than whatever burdened wifi network I'm on.

I mean, definitely Intel's modems aren't as good, but I'd be really interested to see how many people rate this as a first-tier, dealbreaker feature. Honestly, if this is you, please speak up, I'm honestly curious as to what you're doing on your phone.

Re:Larger sample size

[Anonymous Coward]

The majority of people go to speedtest for two reasons.
1) The internet is being slow, and Ookla is seen as an uninvolved 3rd party.
2) They bought something new and want to see how fast it's going.

I would expect that a small sample of a new product will average higher speeds than the total collected data of older products, even if there is no change in the hardware's capabilities.

Also, the last time I cared, iStuff only had one carrier, while Androids were avaiable with every carrier. If that is still the case, this could just be averaging a 30Mbps carrier that has exclusive deals with Apple alongside 40Mbps carriers that do not carry iPhones.