You may have noticed that the new batch of iPhones
Apple recently announced do not embrace
5G connectivity, even though wireless carriers can't stop talking it. Apple is going to wait at least one more generation. That doesn't mean the new iPhone models don't deliver a bump in wireless performance. They do, as evidenced by results collected by SpeedSmart.
SpeedSmart posted the results to Twitter and they show impressive speed gains from the
iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, compared to the previous generation iPhone X. Faster uploads and especially faster downloads can be seen across
AT&T,
T-Mobile, and
Verizon. For whatever reason,
Sprint is curiously missing from the roundup.
In any event, here's a look...
Click to Enlarge (Source: SpeedSmart)
The new iPhones performed the best on AT&T's wireless network, with downloads averaging 72.24 Mbps. That's over two times faster than the
iPhone X, which averaged 27.67 Mbps.
Verizon came in second place with average downloads of 62.20 Mbps, compared to 26.08 Mbps for the previous generation iPhone, and T-Mobile wasn't far behind at 59.92 Mbps (versus 29.82 Mbps).
Collectively, the new iPhones average 64.79 Mbps across all three networks, compared to the collective average of 27.86 Mbps for the iPhone X. No matter how you slice it, the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max are significantly faster in LTE performance, based on these early results.
So what makes the new iPhones so much faster? Apple upgraded the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max with 4x4 MIMO support, as already found on some Android handsets. The iPhone X and iPhone 8, meanwhile, sport 2x2 MIMO.
It's not clear how many data samples SpeedSmart collected when compiling these results, only that they were obtained from iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max devices from September 12-16.