iPhone 15 Pro with X70 modem offers up to 24% faster 5G speeds

https://speedsmart.net/blog/post/2005/iPhone-15-Pro-up-to-24-Faster-5G-Download-Speeds

by mfiguiere • 3 years ago

31 41 3 years ago

vxxzy• 3 years ago

Seeing as how latency did not decrease from the previous generation, is it fair to say that existing latency is inherently tied to 5G (and other) wireless protocol(s)?

supertrope2• 3 years ago

Look for standalone 5G (SA) if you want lower latency. Most 5G is actually bonding 5G channel(s) to a main 4G control channel(s) so it has 4G latency.

fy20• 3 years ago

Wasn't lower latency one of the big selling points of 5G...?

inkyoto• 3 years ago

[…] latency is inherently tied to 5G (and other) wireless protocol(s)?

It is tied to 5G but not to the wireless network. It is tied to the 5G core (wired) network design where the device's IP traffic terminates at each cell site that has its own IP connection to a uplink ISP. Therefore, each cell site is also an exit node for the IP traffic.

5G has incorporated this design feature for two major reasons: 1) reduced latency, 2) mobile edge computing where compute nodes could placed at the cell site location to offload computations to (think Cloudflare worker style nodes that a mobile device can send off a compute unit to and get results quickly. Practically, I do not think anyone has implemented the mobile edge computing other than placing game servers next the cell).

In 3G and 4G, on the hand, IP packets had to travel across the entire core network of a mobile operator and exit the core network at a single point which resulter in a higher latency.

prennert• 3 years ago

I think the edge compute on the 5G towers is mostly an industry application in dedicated private networks rather than public networks for end users.

For example, a factory might use 5G as their wireless networking stack (instead of Wi-Fi) to collect sensor data from machines, robots, process nodes, moving inventory, etc and place the compute at the tower to filter what data to forward to the cloud, or to implement some control logic.

GoToRO• 3 years ago

do they still lie about signal strength?

KptMarchewa2• 3 years ago

No, you're just holding it wrong.

behnamoh• 3 years ago

funny how adding the most basic thing—a 23 yo USB C ('cuz it has USB 2 speeds on the non-Pro iPhone)—is mentioned as a feature you should upgrade your iPhone for...

rbliss• 3 years ago

"No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame." -- Slashdot creator CmdrTaco/Rob Malda about the iPod in 2001.

I can’t remember the last time I connected my iPhone to a computer to do a data transfer.

bhouston2• 3 years ago

In fairness, this was a relatively lackluster update to the iPhone. There is little difference between the iPhones 11 to 15 for normal consumers. It suggests upgrade cycles can lengthen as a result.

musicale• 3 years ago

The USB C connector is not 23 years old. IIRC Apple was a big participant in the USB C design process, advocating for a symmetric connector (like Lightning), unifying USB C and Thunderbolt, etc.

For that matter, Apple was a major adopter of USB starting with the iMac in 1998 (which also ditched 3.5" floppy disks in favor of optical and USB storage options - later models added FireWire.) Non-USB connections for iDevices (FireWire, 30-pin, Lightning) were used because of limitations of USB at the time(s). 30-pin and Lightning were retained for ~10 years to reduce connector churn (sorry Firewire iPod people.)

Regarding the pro model, it's definitely convenient to be able to shoot directly to an external SSD, connect to a monitor (and charge from it like a MacBook or iPad) etc. without a dongle.

chaosbolt• 3 years ago

Oh now it's convenient to connect it to external storage? What happened to "who cares about how shit itunes is on windows just buy a mac or use itunes", or "who cares about sd cards or external storage just use the cloud" etc.?

KptMarchewa2• 3 years ago

For that matter, Apple was a major adopter of USB

And they've pioniered USB-C usage in charging with otherwise ill-conceived 2015 MBP.

bhouston2• 3 years ago

Here in Canada my iPhone 12 is reporting that in many places I am on a 5G+ network and on that network I get above 300MBps.

So I am confused by this article that says the new iPhone 15 can finally now achieve those speeds. My phone can do that and it is 3 years old.

trustingtrust2• 3 years ago

Here in India my iPhone 13 has delivered me gigabit speeds. And it's not just me my friends also get those speeds at times (early morning usually when networks aren't busy). So the iPhone supports well over gigabit speeds on 5G already. That being said during day time I have seen speeds below 10mbps on 5G so it is very traffic dependent and has nothing to do with the pro being more capable so its faster.

Edit: Apparently if you are farther the Pro is better. Could be interesting but if the tower is bogged down with traffic it won't help anyway in my case.

kahnclusions• 3 years ago

Here in Taipei I get pretty close to gigabit download speeds in good conditions. Upload only around 150Mbit though.

kalleboo2• 3 years ago

They're looking at average speeds seen in the dataset of the users of their speed-test app. So the idea is instead of looking at peak speeds in good conditions, looking at actual speeds in real-life conditions, to see how well the modem deals with cell selection, poor reception, congested networks, etc.

That said, the phone isn't out yet? Where is this data coming from? If it's all staff at Apple Campus that's not going to be a realistic comparison.

NullPrefix• 3 years ago

My phone can do that and it is 3 years old

Soon it won't, because of the impending SAR issue patch

trustingtrust2• 3 years ago

Apple clarified that it failed tests because ‘related to a specific testing protocol used by French regulators and not a safety concern’ not because they are using more power to get faster speeds.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/09/more-countries-are-c...

skavi• 3 years ago

What happened to Apple’s efforts to design their own modem? Are those still ongoing?

travisporter• 3 years ago

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/09/apple...

tiffanyh• 3 years ago

What’s unclear is if that deal is for new phone models or old.

Keep in mind Apple has a strategy where they graduate down new phones and sell previous year models for 3-4 years after it was first introduced.

This could just be Apple needing Qualcomm licensing/chips for iPhone 14 models since they will continue selling that model for a few more years.

ksec3• 3 years ago

Yes, but their first Modem will likely come to SE or other product range before going to flagship. Although I wont be surprised if it ends up being like Apple Car Project.

MagicMoonlight• 3 years ago

If I was in charge of Apple Car I would have just bought a model of VW or something, stripped the interior and put in an Apple finish. VW already does that a ton so it’s very easy to do.

Then they could focus on their specialty, the experience. It should be the most enjoyable car you’ve ever used. You don’t need bullshit like self-driving, just fix all the rough areas other manufacturers have.

fooker• 3 years ago

Modems and other comms devices are patent minefields.

Even if they have something reasonable ready to go, it'll take them years to actually ship it in a product.

The usual step in the middle is to acquire/acquihire a company with a decent patent portfolio.

ashishgautam0• 3 years ago

Does it even matter for most of us?

supertrope2• 3 years ago

Yes but in a subtle manner. While hundreds of Mbps is well past the point of finishing returns for one individual, that pool of bandwidth is shared between all customers in a sector. Rising peak speeds helps reduce the likelihood of congestion. To use a strained analogy rising car fuel economy keeps national gasoline demand flat even with more people driving than ever before.

ksec3• 3 years ago

Or Network capacity. But I am glad at least 5% of HN ( I mean look at the rest of comment on this post ) is finally catching up to understanding what 5G is all about.

numpad0• 3 years ago

this: 1Gbps for 1 user == 1Mbps for ~1000 users

rhester• 3 years ago

Weird. I get 700Mbps+ in Canada on iPhone 14 Pro.

gruez• 3 years ago

Those are average speeds across the country, not best/peak speeds. My guess is that the modem supports more efficient encoding and/or has better signal to noise ratio so given the same radio conditions they can get more bandwidth. Either that, or there's sampling bias where the new phone is more likely to be owned by urban customers, which have better speeds compared to rural customers and thus skewing the average.

kalleboo2• 3 years ago

The phone isn't even out yet, so the only users must be Apple staff. Maybe by now priority reviewers like MKBHD have them?

drewg123• 3 years ago

What happened to upload speeds? I remember ~10 years ago, LTE speeds on my carrier (T-Mobile) were in excess of 75Mb/s. Now we're down to about 1/3 of that.

Is there some channels tradeoff in 5G, like DOCIS, where there are a finite number of channels that can be either upload or download, and carriers give more channels to download? Or is it just carriers being carriers and sucking on metrics that are not widely advertised?

iPhone 15 Pro with X70 modem offers up to 24% faster 5G speeds

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