iPhones Trail Samsung and Google Devices in Internet Speeds

Apple’s iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X trail the latest smartphones from Samsung and Google in download speeds, according to Bloomberg, citing data from Ookla.

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 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.

Ookla’s data breakdown indicated the iPhone X operated faster on Verizon’s network with average speeds of 31.5 Mbps and slowest on Sprint’s with speeds of 25.1 Mbps. The Galaxy S9+, which is closest to the iPhone X in terms of price, recorded average speeds of 38.2 Mbps on Verizon and 34.2 Mbps on Sprint. Google’s Pixel 2 XL delivered a speed of 33.9 Mbps and the smaller Pixel 2 showed speeds of 34.4 Mbps. Huawei’s Mate 10 Pro, a phone for the U.S. market, recorded the slowest average speeds of 22 Mbps, based on a small sample size of 884 phones.

The speeds of smartphone data downloads are determined by a combination of the modem chips used in the device and the software that tunes the hardware. Apple uses a mix of modems from Intel and Qualcomm in the newest iPhones. Qualcomm’s latest modems are usually speedier than the ones built by Intel, but Apple uses software to keep the speeds of the Qualcomm chips closer to that of the Intel devices.