This might not go down well with the iPhone users, especially iPhone 8, 8 plus and the latest addition, the iPhone X customers.
Recent tests conducted by Ookla, a popular mobile data speed test company, shows Apple iPhone X – let go the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 plus – to be almost 37% slower than the Samsung’s S9 and S9 plus and 20% slower than the Google Pixel 2, in terms of download speed.
At a price ridiculously higher than the Pixel 2 and the newly launched Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+, all the A11 Bionic equipped Apple iPhones, which include iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X, appear to be crawling against the Snapdragon 845 in the newly launched Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ and the Snapdragon 835 equipped Google’s Pixel 2.
To put it simply, the Ookla findings imply that even if you’ve paid a $1,000 for a smartphone, likes of iPhone X, you’ll be slower than a couple of seconds while downloading any file, video, photo, etc. when compared to the Galaxy S9, Galaxy S9 Plus and Google Pixel 2.
The news gathers its pace in a time when Apple and Qualcomm are entangled in a legal controversy.
Speed Test of iPhone X: Figures vs. Reality
Even if the data and the numbers provided by the mobile data speed test company, Ookla, may be authentic, it can’t be taken to account for real-life conditions. For, the LTE speed depends on more than one variable in the empirical world; such as the kind of file that is being downloaded or the kind of media streaming that is preferred by the user, the type of coverage or reception the area provides with the type of carrier that the smartphone is on.
Incidentally, AT&T and T-mobile LTE networks were used for the data collection done by Ookla that comprised of over a million user conducted tests of iPhones and other Android-based flagship phones under the time frame of April to June 2018. Against Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+’s average download speed of 38.9 mb/sec, Google Pixel 2’s 34.44 megabits per second, the iPhone X managed to do only 29.7 mb/sec.
In the meanwhile, Samsung is trying to cash-on its victory in a test conducted by a third-party, by using taglines such as “Don’t let your phone slow you down”. Despite all the self-claimed victory and the leading rankings of the Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy S9 Plus, the sales have been lower than expected, much to the company’s displeasure, eventually fuelling for a price drop of the models in some of the mobile carriers in the U.S.
On the other hand, having said all about the figures and the drawbacks of the highly expensive but apparently less fast Apple iPhones, almost negligible impacts of the tests results may be found on the sales of the new flagships by Apple. Though, it might turn against the company’s upcoming fiscal quarters if the speed tests results get highlighted; which Samsung is doing with all its marketing strategies and branding its flagship models as the fastest available smartphones in the market.
It may be expected in coming fiscal quarters that people would be more willing to spend on a phone that offers the fastest performance over the most expensive yet a slower performing smartphone. But, how significant the difference is for users, only the sales figures of iPhone in the coming quarters will tell.
