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Does the IPhone 6s Plus have better cellular than a iPhone 6?
- Thread starter Redrum509
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I can tell you that they keep crowding more and more channels with each iphone
The latest iPhone offers 3 more channels then the 6
Band 12 = used to deploy t-mobile's new coverage expansion , resulting in better reception inside of buildings.
Band 30 = AT&t's new band that is rolling out in certain areas ( the AT&T or sim free units have this band)
Band 27 = a band thats not even used yet. So if some carrier should decide to flip the switch on band 27 tomorrow, you wont have to buy a new phone
The other improvement is you no longer need to buy a special sprint version of the iphone 6 to get bands 38,39,40,41., because the all of the iPhone 6s models ( AT&T or Verizon/t-mobile/sprint) has them
Someone who has T-mobile ( band 12) or AT&T (band 30 ) would probably get better cellular reception then an iPhone 6 which lacks those bands, so in that way, the answer is yes.
The latest iPhone offers 3 more channels then the 6
Band 12 = used to deploy t-mobile's new coverage expansion , resulting in better reception inside of buildings.
Band 30 = AT&t's new band that is rolling out in certain areas ( the AT&T or sim free units have this band)
Band 27 = a band thats not even used yet. So if some carrier should decide to flip the switch on band 27 tomorrow, you wont have to buy a new phone
The other improvement is you no longer need to buy a special sprint version of the iphone 6 to get bands 38,39,40,41., because the all of the iPhone 6s models ( AT&T or Verizon/t-mobile/sprint) has them
Someone who has T-mobile ( band 12) or AT&T (band 30 ) would probably get better cellular reception then an iPhone 6 which lacks those bands, so in that way, the answer is yes.
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thanks for the info. Does this apply to Verizon iPhones also? Reason I ask is because I have a Verizon iPhone 6s Plus and I know someone with a Verizon iPhone 6 and we were debating about the possibility of the plus having better reception at times.
Reception wise they really don't differ much year to year, short of fixing a previous design flaw like "antenna gate" several years ago. What new phones have are additional cellular bands, which carriers add to their towers to improve performance and capacity.
The newer iPhones have more wifi antennas with more spatial streams. Today's iPhones can achieve 802.11ac at 800 mbit, where android is still stuck with 802.11n 5ghz with a maximum speed of 72 mbit, because they only have 1 wifi antenna
You also quoted the wrong person
I'm talking about cellular reception which is what the OP is referring to, not WiFi. You are absolutely correct, WiFi changes dramatically every few years. You are wrong however about "Android being stuck at 72Mbps". Android phones have had 802.11ac capable of 433Mbps for at least 3 years. Many were also capable of 866Mbps 2 years ago. 802.11n 5GHz maxes out at 450Mbps, I think you are talking about 802.11n 2.4GHz which maxes out at 144Mbps. Apple is hardly the first to have a 2x2 802.11ac WiFi configuration in a phone.
For cellular, reception doesn't change much over the years. As I said before, what changes are the bands the phone supports, and the maximum speeds.
I also didn't quote anyone in my previous post.
No, I'm talking about 802.11 n phones that have 1 x 1 spatial streams and a max speed of 72 mbit at 5 ghz
Go to the wifi alliance page and look up various phones , look at their certificates and see how many ones that you can find are 1 x 1. ( 2 x 2 is needed for 300 and 3 x 3 is needed for 450 )
I believe I was correct that someone with band 30 with AT&T or t-mobile with band 12 would get better cellular reception in post #2, so I think the reception issue was answered correctly, and it does not need to be replied to further
Andrioid typically sells phones with older cellular chipsets, of 5 to 7 channels, sometimes as low as 3 Channels. They have been staying that way. The last time I checked android cellular radios, the amazon fire phone was the leader.
As far as reception goes of the cellular antenna, I dunno. How to test for that. I can tell you that I went hiking to Saratoga to hunters point with my dog, and with my 6s+ I got a faster internet speed on T-mobile vesus my friend that had a Samsung galaxy s5 on AT&T.
Why do they call it the lg g3? Because it only has 3 channels.
Back in the day you had to buy an AT&T version or a Verizon version of the iphone 5. You couldn't bring an AT&T to Verizon, and if you broguht a Verizon to AT&T , you wouldnt get the fastest LTE speeds. With android, this is still the case.
[doublepost=1468525130][/doublepost]Here is the wifi certificate for a Samsung Galaxy s5. Notice that it only has 1 spatial stream. So even though this phone is 802.11n and 5 ghz, it can't operate at 300 or 450 mbit.
[doublepost=1468525210][/doublepost]In a nutshell, if you are on t0mobile or AT&T , get the 6s. If you have 802.11ac get the 6s. If you don't have either. Stay with the 6. And as always, get the sim free one. So you can take it to different carriers.
I need to correct some of your mis-information here.
Yes, a 1x1 802.11n device is limited to 72Mbps in a 20MHz environment, or 144Mbps in a 40MHz environment. For 802.11ac, a 1x1 gets you 433Mbps, 2x2 gets you 866Mbps.
Having said that, when you look at higher end Android phones (which should be compared since you are comparing it to a high end iPhone), 802.11ac was offered as long ago as 2013 with the LG G2 which maxed out at 433Mbps. A year or 2 year ago, almost all high end Android phones have supported 2x2 866Mbps 802.11ac such as the Galaxy S6, LG G4, HTC 9, etc. I haven't seen an 802.11n-only Android phone other than ultra low budget <$150 phones. Apple played catch up with the iPhone 6s, offering 866Mbps WiFi which high end Android phones had for over a year longer.
For reception, you are getting the OP's question confused. He is asking if the technology in the phones have improved reception. Not adding more bands, but if today's phone have better reception when compared to phones a few years old. The answer to that is they have remained relatively unchanged. Phones are getting thinner and are using metal as the preferred material, both have a negative impact on cellular reception which have been compensated for in improved technology.
It's also not called cellular channels, it's cellular bands.
Complete BS. First of all, Android is an OS, not a phone. There are hundreds of different Android phones out there, each which has different cellular band support. If you look at the flagship Android phones like the LG G5, HTC 10, Galaxy S7, Nexus 6P, Moto X, and more, they have roughly the same bands as the iPhone 6s and work on all US and international carriers. In fact, flagship Android phones often have the latest cellular chipsets compared to Apple, and supported carrier aggregation before Apple did.
You can't be serious. That has nothing to do with reception. You are comparing two completely different networks, on phones that are years apart. Tons of factors at play here. Even if it was the same carrier, with a phone 2 years older it would lack band 12 and also lack carrier aggregation.
LOL! The G3 is the name of the phone model. LG G2 > G3 > G4 > G5. Nothing to do with cellular bands. In fact, the LG G3 has vastly different bands depending on what carrier you buy it on.
That's because Verizon is CDMA and AT&T is GSM. Back then, phones had to be created for Verizon specifically. In the past 2-3 years though, many phones can be used on Verizon or AT&T. Phones like the Nexus 6P, Galaxy S7, HTC 10, LG G5, Moto X, and more can be brought to any carrier including Verizon or AT&T and have all the bands required for the fastest speeds and best service.
Why are you comparing it to the S5 which is 3 years old? The iPhone 5s was released the same year, and also only supported 802.11a/b/g/n at 1x1 spatial stream.
The OP is asking purely about radio reception with newer phones, not about WiFi or newer bands.
Please don't post when you have no knowledge on the subject.
iPhone has the best cellular network compatibility of any phone in the industry. However, it has among the worst antennas across today's top of the line smartphones from what I've heard. Cell signal drops out at about -120 to -125 dbm. I've heard that there can be as much of a 5 to 15 dbm difference between iPhone and the Galaxy S7 Edge for example. In usual day to day difference you won't ever notice a difference at all but if you're in a fringe signal area then your iPhone may show "No Service" or may have switched to a slow legacy network like 1x or EDGE while the other phone may be clinging to usable LTE still. I can't tell you from first hand use but I have heard this. A lot.
Anyway, yes the iPhone "Plus" models have a "slightly" better antenna than the regular iPhone models. They all have the same bands and everything though so you're good there. My friend's 6 Plus usually is hanging onto LTE a bit longer than my iPhone 6. But I've seen it go the other way too where his is on 3G but I still have a bar of LTE. Typically I can grab onto the same LTE signal he is in fringe areas by toggling airplane mode on and off.
Anyway, yes the iPhone "Plus" models have a "slightly" better antenna than the regular iPhone models. They all have the same bands and everything though so you're good there. My friend's 6 Plus usually is hanging onto LTE a bit longer than my iPhone 6. But I've seen it go the other way too where his is on 3G but I still have a bar of LTE. Typically I can grab onto the same LTE signal he is in fringe areas by toggling airplane mode on and off.