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Apple May Be Throttling Verizon iPhone 7 LTE Performance
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Read the summary in the first post. They used a Samsung s7 on Verizon with the same modem as the iPhone 7 Verizon version and download speed was 2x as fast.
Anyone can test this themselves with those two phones on Verizon.
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It was my understanding that there is, the unlocked Verizon model. It works on all USA carriers. It doesn't cost extra.
I suspect the reason Apple throttled the Verizon model is so non-Verizon users don't get the get the Verizon model thus apple having to pay more licencing fees to Qualcomm.
Are you an 'American'????
SPRINT is one of the FOUR major cellular carriers in America. They being Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and SPRINT. The rest are little Mom & Pop outfits.
Have you never heard of nor used 'Google'?? Just 'google' 'sprint' and read about the company. It frankly is the smallest of the 'Big Four' and coverage is not the best once you leave the major metropolitan areas (doesn't affect me)....but it offers the BEST 'unlimited data' plan presently. However, these plans change at least every several months are the 'Big Four' are always trying to grab 'switchers'.
I don't have a horse in this race, but the article said that:
The overall speed difference discovery came from looking at 100,000 different phone downloads.
(The company that found the difference, sells code that is designed to speed up internet applications. They do this partly by collecting data from all the phones that use their system all over the country.)
No, it's not on me. I haven't claimed that they are a shill or that they aren't. By publishing they implicitly make the claim that they are legitimate, but they haven't backed that up. I'm simply pointing that out.
Yes, they've provided some data, but only in relation to the argument they're making. The purpose of making that argument (true or not) is in question here. Are they making the argument to inform or to manipulate? Knowing more about them would go a long way toward answering that question.
Trying to blame this on Intel is absurd. If Intel hasn't upped their game, Apple shouldn't have used their chips - the 6S was Qualcomm only, so chip supply is not an issue either.
Cook is a supply chain guy - this reeks of pinching pennies wherever possible. Similar to the lack of Iris Pro in the new 15" MBPs.is starting down that line of cost cutting in their products. Building the ultimate best product is no longer the primary consideration.
I am in agreement with you. I was explaining why it might not be possible to "turn on" the disabled features in the Intel part to another poster who said Apple would do that next year.
That last paragraph reeks of tin foil hat observations, although I do realize it's an opinion, still....making these "conclusions " part of planned obsolescence or penny pinching is absurd.
Which source are you talking about? Cellular Insights? They never claimed anything was being throttled.
Nor did the other company, Twin Prime, say so exactly. Everybody should ALWAYS go look at the source article. For this thread, it was this one on Bloomberg, where we find this comment that started it all:
"The data indicates that the iPhone 7 is not taking advantage of all of Verizon’s network capabilities,” said Gabriel Tavridis, head of product at Twin Prime. “I doubt that Apple is throttling each bit on the Verizon iPhone, but it could have chosen to not enable certain features of the network chip.”
His suggestion that Apple didn't want to end up having to produce more Qualcomm iPhones, at least makes some possible sense.
So what do YOU think is the reason why Apple might hold the Qualcomm phones back?
Seemingly confirmed on appleinsider:
http://iphone.appleinsider.com/arti...em-to-keep-performance-on-par-with-intel-chip
http://iphone.appleinsider.com/arti...em-to-keep-performance-on-par-with-intel-chip
The modem is supposed to be capable of 600Mb/s and they're claiming Apple throttled it to match their other model that only does 450Mb/s.
And yet the only evidence is a test where the phone only achieves 2.5Mb/s, while a Samsung phone that should also be capable of 600Mb/s was only able to achieve 4Mb/s and another iPhone (which is deliberately not sold to CDMA customers) only gets 2Mb/s.
Clearly this test was never intended to measure maximum of the radio, they had to have a ridiculously weak cell signal to get those results and they're irrelevant to Bloomberg's theory.
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Well, then, can you think of any other reasons that would make sense?
It's difficult to diss his post's conjecture, unless one can counter it with a reasonable alternative.
Consider: Qualcomm is able to demand and get over 3% (*) of the price of a phone using its IP... on top of the $15 to $35 they get per modem chip.
That's a pretty big incentive for Apple to find another modem source. Especially as Cook faces dropping profit margins.
(*) That's one example of why cell phone inventor Motorola's starting negotiation ask of 2.25% of a phone's price, for its own IP, was not out of line, despite what some naive people thought.
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I think that's false reasoning. Because we can't guess what apples rational may be it doesn't follow a guess is correct by process of elimination.
But they never promised the higher speeds, which most carriers don't yet support anyway.
A couple thoughts:
1. 4x4 MIMO. One of the "throttled" features requires more than just a radio that supports it, it also requires four antennas. The iPhone 7 design doesn't have this. It can't support it. Nothing throttled about that, the hardware isn't there.
2. 256 QAM downstream/64 QAM upstream. Okay, at first glance this is a bit ridiculous to disable. But how would Intel iPhone users feel if they paid the same and didn't get this feature? Also, it isn't as beneficial as it sounds. It's not often that radio conditions are good enough to actually use 256 QAM modulation...
1. 4x4 MIMO. One of the "throttled" features requires more than just a radio that supports it, it also requires four antennas. The iPhone 7 design doesn't have this. It can't support it. Nothing throttled about that, the hardware isn't there.
2. 256 QAM downstream/64 QAM upstream. Okay, at first glance this is a bit ridiculous to disable. But how would Intel iPhone users feel if they paid the same and didn't get this feature? Also, it isn't as beneficial as it sounds. It's not often that radio conditions are good enough to actually use 256 QAM modulation...
1) Isn't T-Mobile the only carrier that has 4x4 MIMO rolled out?
2) Do you know what carriers have 256 QAM in use? I thought that it was only T-Mobile, but maybe it's Verizon too?
The implication — as you've demonstrated — is that Apple is holding phones back. In other words, throttling.
I think it's possible, even likely, that tests designed for optimum situations don't reflect real world use cases in any way. That's why it's important to know who the testing companies are. What are their true motivations?
T-Mobile USA is the only one I know of for sure with either feature, but most networks don't tout new technical features. I think Telstra Australia might also have them.
Edit - yes, a quick Google search reveals Telstra. So T-Mobile USA and Telstra, at least.
well here is my gs7 on Verizon.can someone post up there iPhone 7 performance with full signal strength? I've hit 105 and 30 upload before also. edit iv just ran a test with really low signal strength and got 40
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That is not how testing works. You need to have the same environment with different devices in order to deduct anything. Someone else posting speed tests from a different location would not be useful here.
The tests that were done by the study were done when they limited the signal on all devices.
One more thing, this thread highlights the problems with spec chasing. It's the networks that should be annoyed Apple disabled 256 QAM downlink and 64 QAM uplink on the Qualcomm model. If radio conditions are good enough for such high order modulation, your performance will be good enough you won't care. However, higher order modulation in good signal conditions reduces congestion and makes the network experience better for everyone. Given the popularity of the iPhone, I bet there are some network techs ****** that Apple has higher order modulation disabled on the Qualcomm iPhone...
It seems the Intel parts don't just make download speeds slow, they also have poor GPS results ... https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/gps-problems-iphone-7-or-ios10.1998933/page-6#post-23836157
yes but I also hit 40(4mb) like there testing with very low signal and there is a thread with a guy with an iPhone 7 and Verizon saying he is getting like 2-5 download load speed with his phone in Colorado