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Study Suggests Samsung Users In U.S. See Faster Download Speeds Than Apple iPhone Users on Average

Monday August 5, 2019 11:01 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Samsung smartphone users in the United States experience faster LTE data speeds on average than Apple iPhone users, according to a recent global study conducted by Opensignal.

The study looked at over 3 billion measurements from more than 23 million devices from April 1 to June 30, 2019, concluding that Samsung users in the U.S. experienced download speeds 8.2Mb/s faster than iPhone users on average.


Samsung users also saw faster download speeds than Apple users in 35 percent of countries, across 40 countries analyzed. Apple users saw faster speeds in just 17.5 percent of countries, and in the remaining 48 percent, neither Apple nor Samsung (nor Huawei) offered the fastest devices.

Apple's iPhones had the biggest edge over Samsung in Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates, where iPhone speeds were 8Mb/s faster than Samsung device speeds. Samsung had the biggest edge over Apple in Norway, where Samsung users saw mobile speeds that were 14Mb/s faster than those experienced by Apple users.

All in all, Apple's iPhones were faster than Samsung and Huawei (the third most popular worldwide smartphone) in Brazil, Costa Rica, Kuwait, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and UAE.


Samsung won out in the United States, Australia, Chile, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, and Sweden.

Opensignal's testing split smartphone users into three groups (low, mid, and high-tier) based on each smartphone's mobile network capabilities, with the highest tier representing the newest smartphones with technology than Opensignal says is more sensitive to mobile network improvements.

Amid higher-tier smartphones, differences in speeds between the three largest smartphone brands (Apple, Samsung, and Huawei) were smaller. Higher-tier smartphones included the iPhone XS and XS Max, along with the Galaxy S8, S9, and S10, among others.

Higher-tier Samsung users saw faster speeds than Apple and Huawei users with global download speeds of 26.6Mb/s vs. 25.1Mb/s (Apple) vs. 24.4Mb/s (Huawei), but Apple users saw the fastest speeds of the three in the mid-tier category, which included the iPhone XR, X, and 8, along with the Samsung M40 and A80 and others.

Middle tier iPhone users, which make up the bulk of Apple users, saw speeds of 16.5Mb/s, compared to 16.3Mb/s for Huawei users and 14.4Mb/s for Samsung users. Samsung ultimately won out in the higher-tier smartphone category (aka the newest devices) and won the overall speed contest because most iPhone users have iPhones with slower modem hardware.

Samsung and Huawei have prioritized "Gigabit" LTE modems over the course of the last few years, while Apple's only devices with modems in that class are the iPhone XS and the XS Max. Even the iPhone XR, a 2018 device, doesn't have an LTE modem comparable to the modem chips Samsung has been using for the last couple of years.
Apple's challenge is that few of its current models are high-tier devices when we group iPhone models based on their mobile network experience capabilities. In our measurements, just 14% of Apple users are high tier. Instead, Apple has chosen to focus its handset designs on other capabilities such as facial recognition, camera innovation, long battery life, and extremely fast application processors and graphics using Apple's in-house silicon designs.

While all Samsung and Huawei flagship models for the last couple of years have featured so-called "gigabit" capable modem designs -- LTE Category 16 and above -- only the iPhone XS and XS Max have such capability. Even the current iPhone XR includes a less-capable LTE Category 12 modem, which we therefore class as a mid-tier smartphone on mobile network experience.
Apple's 2019 version of the iPhone XR is expected to feature faster LTE speeds that may eventually help Apple gain an edge over Samsung. The looming worldwide adoption of 5G will also shake things up, though Apple is not set to start debuting 5G capable devices until 2020, while Samsung already has 5G devices in 2019.

More detail from Opensignal's report can be found on the Opensignal website.

[ 118 comments ]


Top Rated Comments

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Undecided
3 weeks ago
All I see is how crappy the US is compared to other countries. WTH.
Rating: 17 Votes
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Porco
3 weeks ago
Here is a graph of how many people notice:

_________
Rating: 14 Votes
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dunos
3 weeks ago
Even if it is faster, by the look of that graph we aren't talking major speed improvement here. Oh whoop de do a meg or two quicker. I literally don't care about the speed as long as it's fast enough to stream a video. What I really care about is the quality of the connection. How well does the phone keep its connection to the mast, how does it perform in congested areas, how well does it perform in poor coverage areas, how quickly can it regain a connection, how quickly does it realise the connection has gone bad. These are the things that really matter once we hit the point I can stream a video.
Rating: 12 Votes
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cablecartman
3 weeks ago
Big deal even if Samsung were faster downloading — their phones run slower! Nothing beats Apples A series
Rating: 9 Votes
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revenantananias
3 weeks ago
I find it hilarious that the US (arguably the wealthiest country in the world), which has expensive internet and mobile plan prices is so slow.
Rating: 9 Votes
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hawros
3 weeks ago
It shouldn't be a line chart, as the x axis is discrete, with no ordinal relationship between the adjacent values...

Ignored.
Rating: 8 Votes
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jonplackett
3 weeks ago
In the UK 4G was soooooo fast when it first launched. I’d almost always get 100mbps+ download AND upload. But now everyone else is on 4G it sucks.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the faster countries have low populations.
Rating: 8 Votes
Avatar
DinkThifferent
3 weeks ago
I'm always shocked to see how ridiculously expensive mobile services are in the USA. 80 dollars per month? 90 dollars per month? WHAT?!

I pay 25 euros ($28) per month for unlimited phone calls, unlimited texts and virtually unlimited 4G data. The only 'limit' I have on my data is that I can use 5GB per day, before it stops (to prevent misuse) but I can reactivate another GB by one click on a button in my carrier's app for free. If that gigabyte runs out I can get another one by repeating that, and another one, and another one..

So basically it is unlimited 4G. And i have never used more than 5GB on one day. So for me it is absolutely perfect.
Rating: 7 Votes
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69Mustang
3 weeks ago
None of this matters because the phone you have is going to have the speed it has wherever you are. But I find it funny that if:

* Random article says Apple is faster or better - thread full of "experts" extolling the virtues of Apple's superiority... and profit ←:D
* Random article says another company faster or better - thread full of "expert deniers" downplaying and poo pooing and rationalizing Apple not being the best.

Tee hee
Rating: 6 Votes
Avatar
Suckfest 9001
3 weeks ago

Using that logic, people pay $$$ for a Ferrari and they can’t even drive it in the snow. One would think for $$$ it should be a snow mobile.

I7guy I'm usually with you on these arguments but what the hell are you talking about. Don't tell me it's like driving a Ferrari on snow, as that is a use case that has nothing to do with how the vehicle is marketed and the target audience to which it's sold. Please explain how using data on a mobile phone is so "out there" in the same way that driving a Ferrari on the snow is. Ffs it's literally 1 of 3 main ways for the phone to connect and get/send data.

look I'm not an android fan either but you're wildly grasping at some straws here. The fact that they compete with Speedtest makes everything invalid? Wtf??????
Rating: 6 Votes

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