Apple may have chosen Intel over Qualcomm to provide the majority of its modem chips for this year’s iPhone Xs, but it appears that the latter is having the last laugh on the subject of internet speeds.
According to a recent analysis using user-submitted results to Ookla’s Speedtest benchmark during the second quarter of 2018, Android phones with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 SoC was shown to have faster mobile data speeds and lower latency compared to iPhone Xs equipped with Intel modems. An important point to note is that the tests were performed using the US-based AT&T and T-Mobile mobile networks.
Specifically, Android smartphones using the Snapdragon 845 SoC with its X20 LTE modem showed double-digit gains in latency and triple-digit gains in both download and upload speeds when compared to Intel’s XMM 7480 and 7360 modems.
Qualcomm didn’t outright call the iPhone X by name, but to be fair, there aren’t many other phones that fit the description of “Intel-based, non-Android smartphones”. Further, the XMM 7360 and 7480 are modem chips used in select variants of the iPhone 7, iPhone 8, and iPhone X.
On average, Android phones using the Snapdragon 845 SoC had 40% faster download speeds than an iPhone X equipped with the XMM7480 modem using AT&T. On T-Mobile, The Snapdragon 845-equipped phone had 53% faster download speeds than its Intel counterpart. In worst-case scenarios, the Snapdragon 845 SoC was still leaving the competition behind in download speeds. Specifically, it was 103% faster than the XMM 7480 on a T-Mobile line.
This isn’t the first time Qualcomm has outperformed Apple in internet speeds. The company’s previous X16 LTE modem, which made its debut more than two years ago, was shown to be outperforming the Intel XMM 7480 in both download speeds and weak signal solutions.
(Source: Qualcomm Blog, PCMag)
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