Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Video Compares iPhone 6 Plus 802.11ac Wi-Fi Speeds to 802.11n iPhone 5s Speeds

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,524
30,820



Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are the first Apple mobile devices to come equipped with 802.11ac Wi-Fi, which supports much faster data throughput speeds. 802.11ac Wi-Fi is able to offer connection speeds that are up to three times faster than existing 802.11n networks.

iClarified has created a new video that compares the Wi-Fi speeds of the iPhone 6 Plus, which supports 802.11ac, to the iPhone 5s, which supports 802.11n, when connected to an AirPort Extreme. The site also created a custom app for the test.

Both devices were freshly restored to iOS 8.0 and connected to the 2013 Apple AirPort Extreme. The router was placed 1.5 metres away from the smartphones and each iPhone was connected to the AirPort Extreme using a 5GHz-only network. No other devices were connected to the wireless network at the time of the test and the downloads were performed at separate times. We cut them together for comparison.
Click to expand...
As expected, the iPhone 6 Plus sees much faster connection speeds that reach 278.5 Mbps, while the iPhone 5s tops out at approximately 101.1 Mbps. While speeds are improved in this test, the actual speeds that users see in the real world will vary based on connection strength and other factors, as an actual ISP connection is generally the limiting factor for speeds when connecting to the Internet. When an 802.11ac Wi-Fi network is available, however, iPhone 6 and 6 Plus users should see significant speed improvements.

Along with 802.11ac Wi-Fi, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus offer several other connectivity improvements, including faster LTE with support for LTE Advanced and voice over LTE, which enables higher-quality phone calls. The iPhone 6 also supports calls over Wi-Fi, for access to high-quality voice connections even in areas where cellular connection is poor.

Article Link: Video Compares iPhone 6 Plus 802.11ac Wi-Fi Speeds to 802.11n iPhone 5s Speeds
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/10/01/iphone-6-wifi-compared-to-iphone-5s/
2

2457282

Suspended
Dec 6, 2012
3,327
3,015
"other factors, as an actual ISP connection is generally the limiting factor for speeds when connecting to the Internet."

That right there is my problem as my ISP is Comcrap.
 
Slix

Slix

macrumors 65816
Mar 24, 2010
1,441
1,989
Safari, I mean, the new iPhones seem snappier!

All joking aside, this is to be expected, but still cool to see a video test showing it.
 
T

ThisIsNotMe

Suspended
Aug 11, 2008
1,849
1,062
Cuban Missles said:
"other factors, as an actual ISP connection is generally the limiting factor for speeds when connecting to the Internet."

That right there is my problem as my ISP is Comcrap.
Click to expand...

Name a single wide spread consumer facing IPS that wouldn't be the limiting factor.
 
E

Eorlas

macrumors 65816
Feb 10, 2010
1,249
1,917
Meanwhile, I have the usual consumer level plan from Comcast that doesn't get me those speeds to take advantage of.

=/
 
S

Scott90

macrumors 6502
Jul 14, 2008
273
0
Jakewilk said:
I guess actually WiFi is a bigger deal than I figured
Click to expand...

Not really, because your Internet connection is likely far below the 275Mbps that your WiFi connection can handle. It's really only useful for file transfer within the network, and how often do you do that to/from your iPhone?
 
Moonjumper

Moonjumper

macrumors 68030
Jun 20, 2009
2,740
2,908
Lincoln, UK
MacRumors said:
While speeds are improved in this test, the actual speeds that users see in the real world will vary based on connection strength and other factors, as an actual ISP connection is generally the limiting factor for speeds when connecting to the Internet.
Click to expand...

ISP connection is not the only use for wi-fi, especially with all the OS X / iOS continuity features that allow devices to work together. So .ac will be very useful.
 
M

mike...

macrumors 6502
Oct 9, 2008
381
924
ThisIsNotMe said:
Name a single wide spread consumer facing IPS that wouldn't be the limiting factor.
Click to expand...

Well my iPhone 5 has slower 802.11n throughput than my ISP can provide. i5 gets about 80 to 90Mbps but I get almost 160Mbps from my ISP.
 
CartoonCat

CartoonCat

macrumors regular
Feb 3, 2014
122
54
Wow...Something positive about the new iPhones on MacRumors? How unusual. I'm pretty sure this trend won't last long though. ;)
 
2crazy

2crazy

macrumors regular
Jun 5, 2012
177
61
Saint Louis
mike... said:
Well my iPhone 5 has slower 802.11n throughput than my ISP can provide. i5 gets about 80 to 90Mbps but I get almost 160Mbps from my ISP.
Click to expand...

It certainly is nice being able to use your Internet connection at full speed. But in most cases the download speed is likely to be limited by the server you are downloading from.
 
S

Skika

macrumors 68030
Mar 11, 2009
2,999
1,246
Well i guess Wifi sync will be alot faster with new iPhones. But i suppose thats it?
 
mikeyteh

mikeyteh

macrumors regular
Jun 24, 2013
101
385
So... in a vacuum, the iPhone 6/6 Plus get faster wifi than the iPhone 5s? When Fiber gets here in years, I'll let you know how great it is if I haven't traded in my 6 Plus by then.
 
Viddrumr32

Viddrumr32

macrumors member
Aug 6, 2007
34
21
Raleigh NC
iPhone 5 faster than 6 Plus on a Wireless N network

What I'm curious about is how come my old iPhone 5 is faster on N networks than my 6 Plus? At work the 5 runs about 85-90mbps both ways while my 6 Plus maxes around 35mbps down and anywhere from 45-90mbps up. I'm hoping it's something to do with the speedtest app not being updated yet for iOS 8 but I do wonder considering both phones are on iOS 8.0.2
 
Small White Car

Small White Car

macrumors G4
Aug 29, 2006
10,966
1,463
Washington DC
ThisIsNotMe said:
Its really not, you won't see any applicable difference in real world scenarios.
Click to expand...

Maybe YOU won't, but I sure will.

Scott90 said:
It's really only useful for file transfer within the network, and how often do you do that to/from your iPhone?
Click to expand...

A lot. Well, certainly a lot more starting now. I tend to use Dropbox instead of the direct-access apps because it's convinient, but if those apps start working faster directly over my network I may end up using them more than I have in the past.
 
youknome

youknome

macrumors 6502a
Nov 22, 2010
547
19
The funny thing is many are having wifi problems because of iOS 8. The worst major OS update from my memory!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom