Report: iPhone 12’s 4G/5G Speeds Slower Than Most Android Phones

BY Sanuj Bhatia

Published 15 Mar 2021

iphone 12 5g speeds

A new report published today claims that 4G and 5G data speeds on iPhone 12 series lineup are slower than the most Android smartphones available in the market, despite having a newer Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 modem.

A new report published by Opensignal claims that iPhone 12 performs poorly compared to the other Android smartphones. Samsung thoroughly dominates the chart, with about 60% of the top 25 fastest 5G smartphones. Apple ranks poorly and is placed at the last position when it comes to 5G data speeds.

Samsung’s latest Galaxy S21 tops the chart with an average 5G/4G download speed of 56 Mbps. OnePlus 8T+ took the second spot with an average data speed of 49.3 Mbps. Apple’s latest iPhone 12 isn’t seen anywhere in the top 25 fastest 5G smartphone list. The iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max had average download speeds of 36.9 and 36.2 Mbps, while the iPhone 12 and 12 mini came in at 29.6 and 32.9 Mbps, respectively.

5G and 4G data speeds on the iPhone 12 series are still approximately 18% slower than the fastest 5G smartphone, the report claims. Despite the poor performance, the report lauds Apple for narrowing the gap with Android manufacturers. The average download speed for Apple devices has increased over 2.3 times since introducing the Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 modem in iPhones.

The report finally says that Apple has some catching up to do. With iPhone 12 being its first 5G smartphone, the company is bound to improve its performance, whereas companies like Samsung are into their third year of introduction of 5G smartphones. Apple is known to be testing its own 5G modem for iPhones, though the iPhone 13 series, launching later this year, is still expected to feature the Snapdragon X60 modem.

Our Take

My experience with the iPhone 12 has been the complete opposite. From what I’ve seen in the past month, my iPhone 12 has been performing better than my previous smartphone, both in case of data speeds and call connections. A place where I didn’t get any signal, I’m able to stream 1080p videos there, and the 4G performance has been good overall.

Have you experienced slow data speeds on your iPhone 12? What is your opinion about iPhone 12’s cellular performance? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!