Exclusive: iPhone 8 Scores Top Marks In LTE Speed Tests (Sort Of)

The iPhone 8 is the fastest iPhone ever, although it doesn't quite match up to gigabit LTE phones—and yous have to be careful most which model you get. Our testing shows that the iPhone eight supports 600Mbps speeds on US and Canadian networks, much like the Essential Phone PH-1 does. It lacks the 4x4 MIMO antennas needed to extend speed and coverage on U.s.a. networks to the levels seen on the Samsung Galaxy S8, however. But that's not quite the whole story.

Two iPhones, Maybe Three

At that place are iii versions of the iPhone eight/Plus on sale around the globe. One has a Qualcomm X16 modem and is sold as the unlocked US unit, or with Dart, Verizon, and Australian carriers. The second, which nosotros have not yet tested, is sold by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Canadian carriers. Nosotros are bold that 1 has an Intel XMM7480 modem. At that place is also a Japanese version, only available in Japan.

We get into the divergence betwixt the two The states iPhone models in our story Why Y'all Should Buy an Unlocked or Verizon iPhone 8, iPhone X. To make a long story short, the Intel model lacks support for the CDMA system that Sprint and Verizon use, and may have weaker functioning overall.

We took a expect within the Qualcomm iPhone with the assist of Ookla's Milan Milanovic. (Note: Ookla is owned past Ziff Davis, PCMag.com's parent company.) Milanovic has a primal slice of equipment we don't have in-firm, provided by Rohde & Schwarz. Along with its invaluable applied science support, Rohde & Schwarz supplied CMWflexx test equipment consisting of two R&S CMW500s, one R&S CMWC controller, and a TS7124 RF Shielded Box equipped with iv Vivaldi antennas for up to four×4 MIMO, ensuring loftier reproducibility of OTA MIMO measurements.

We also tapped into Ookla's Speedtest Intelligence database to expect at crowdsourced reports from the first weekend of iPhone eight usage, comparing it with earlier iPhone models on the same wireless carriers. The results there are very preliminary, just expect good for the new iPhones.

800Mbps, but Only in Australia

The iPhone 8 is missing one of the components needed for gigabit LTE, or LTE category 16, in the The states. The Qualcomm X16 modem can do Category 16, as we've seen on the Galaxy S8 and Moto Z2 Force. The phone supports 256QAM encoding and 4x carrier aggregation to 80MHz of spectrum, but not 4x4 MIMO antennas, which would ameliorate both speed and indicate force. In theory, that would make this an 800Mbps telephone, also known as LTE category 15.

The lack of 4x4 MIMO is probably why the iPhone still falls short of the Galaxy S8 when it comes to recovering from expressionless zones, a notorious iPhone problem. Nosotros took an iPhone 8 and Galaxy S8 on the New York City subway, where they dropped in and out of T-Mobile coverage. The Milky way S8 recovered faster in eight out of 11 tests, and where it did, information technology was an average of sixteen seconds faster than the iPhone at regaining LTE signal; when the iPhone won, information technology did so past v seconds on average.

The phone merely supports 60MHz of assemblage on bands that matter to Americans and Canadians. While Canada has 75MHz, 4x carrier aggregation up and running with Bell and Telus, the telephone doesn't support the two/4/7/seven setup that they use, limiting the iPhone's speed on those carriers. In Canada, it's a 600Mbps telephone, or LTE category 12.

No United states of america carrier uses more than 60MHz of carrier aggregation right now, relying on 4x4 MIMO to reach their all-time speeds, which the iPhone does not support. That means this is a 600Mbps phone in the US likewise.

You may need to go to Commonwealth of australia to get full speed from the iPhone eight, every bit the phone does support the 80MHz, band ane/3/7/28 carrier aggregation that Telstra uses. Nosotros've besides heard the aforementioned may be true in Nihon and China, although we don't know plenty about their networks.

The Fastest iPhone Always?

We also looked at Ookla Speedtest Intelligence data for iPhones from Sept. 22-25, 2022 on LTE connections, filtering for carriers with more than 100 unique devices running tests during that fourth dimension. That'southward nonetheless a pretty low threshold, then we'll only have broad-stroke conclusions from that information.

The sample sizes here are small, but decent: ane,604 AT&T iPhone eight Plus units as compared with more ten,000 iPhone 8 units. Still, though, we'd like to test more in a calendar month or and so.

As evidenced in the chart below, we're seeing improved results on every The states carrier between the iPhone 6, 7, and 8 generations. These charts are for the Plus-sized phones, only we're seeing the same trends for the regular phones as well. Also, notice how the Qualcomm phones are consistently slightly faster than the Intel ones.

Nosotros had some results from Bell in Canada and from the three Australian carriers, too. They also showed comeback from generation to generation, with a deviation: on the Australian carriers, there was a dramatic spring from the iPhone vii to the iPhone 8. For example, on Telstra, nosotros saw average speeds increase from 64Mbps down with the iPhone vii to 82Mbps down on the iPhone 8.

iPhone Download Speeds

How Well-nigh Coverage?

Whether you see better coverage on your new iPhone depends on how one-time an iPhone you're coming from and what carrier y'all're using. If you're on Dart or T-Mobile coming from an iPhone half-dozen or earlier, you'll see dramatic improvements.

Both models of the iPhone 8 support all of the frequency bands used in the U.s. and Canada except T-Mobile's new Band 71, which will extend rural coverage in the future. (And so far, the LG V30 is the simply telephone with Band 71.) Neither telephone, as far equally we know, supports Sprint's HPUE system, which improves upload speeds in weak-signal areas.

If you're coming from a more recent iPhone, you won't see a dramatic coverage improvement. In the Usa right now, it would take 4x4 MIMO to eke out better functioning in weak signal areas—and for that, yous'll probably accept to wait until 2022's iPhones, or go an Android phone.

For more than on network speeds in the US, run into our report on the Fastest Mobile Networks.