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

Interesting WiFi SpeedTests with Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Moto X OG, iPhone 6 and 6+

Lloydbm41

Lloydbm41

Suspended
Original poster
Oct 17, 2013
4,019
1,456
Central California
I was expecting the Nexus 5 to be faster than the 2013 Moto X and near equal with the iPhone, but some odd results. All have background processes closed, all the same distance from my router and all showed roughly the same ping rate of approx 17-19ms (which is quick).

First, both the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 have fresh installs of Android 5.1 and end up having the slowest speeds.

The Moto X is running the latest update for it, which is Android 5.0.2. I was actually one of the soak testers for the build. Is Motorola better at building the software or just have a better wifi/modem/radio? Weirdly, it is a lot faster than the Nexus 5?

The iPhone 6 and 6+ are both on 8.3 and the 6 is slightly faster than the 6+. But to say the iPhones blew the Android devices out of the water is an understatement.

Just for the hell of it, I am updating my iPhone 4S to iOS 8.3 now and gonna do another run to see where that falls in. Pic to follow...

Pic from left to right: Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Moto X (2013), iPhone 6+ and iPhone 6. I lined them up from slowest to fastest.
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    1.6 MB · Views: 925
Well, the iPhone 4S running iOS 8.3 is on par with the Nexus 4. Both running 15mb/s down and 12 up.
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    136 KB · Views: 195
Big differences there, but given how crappy my broadband is and how I only have 3g for mobile data I will never know :)
 
It is difficult to compare multiple smartphones at the same time because the first ones to connect to the network usually go the fastest while the others later end up with the slowest speeds. Don't do it simultaneously.

Perhaps also the Nexus 5 has weaker range. I pretty much expect iPhone 6/6 Plus to top as they are 2014 flagships vs 2012-2013 flagships.
 
Lloydbm41 said:
I was expecting the Nexus 5 to be faster than the 2013 Moto X and near equal with the iPhone, but some odd results. All have background processes closed, all the same distance from my router and all showed roughly the same ping rate of approx 17-19ms (which is quick).

First, both the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 have fresh installs of Android 5.1 and end up having the slowest speeds.

The Moto X is running the latest update for it, which is Android 5.0.2. I was actually one of the soak testers for the build. Is Motorola better at building the software or just have a better wifi/modem/radio? Weirdly, it is a lot faster than the Nexus 5?

The iPhone 6 and 6+ are both on 8.3 and the 6 is slightly faster than the 6+. But to say the iPhones blew the Android devices out of the water is an understatement.

Just for the hell of it, I am updating my iPhone 4S to iOS 8.3 now and gonna do another run to see where that falls in. Pic to follow...

Pic from left to right: Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Moto X (2013), iPhone 6+ and iPhone 6. I lined them up from slowest to fastest.
Click to expand...

This is all way outside my knowledge base, and I don't have each phone's specs in front of me but I'm guessing they are not all using they same wifi chip (newer chips more efficient?). Also, I believe the Nexus 4 doesn't support 802.11 AC so could that impact it? And of course, antennas must have some impact--maybe 'Antenna-gate' really made Apple focus on antenna efficiency?

Again, all just blind speculation on my part.
 
Savor said:
It is difficult to compare multiple smartphones at the same time because the first ones to connect to the network usually go the fastest while the others later end up with the slowest speeds. Don't do it simultaneously.

Perhaps also the Nexus 5 has weaker range. I pretty much expect iPhone 6/6 Plus to top as they are 2014 flagships vs 2012-2013 flagships.
Click to expand...

The Nexus phones sent first and were the slowest?

Also, interesting to see that all phones had the same upload speeds?
 
Lloydbm41 said:
The Nexus phones sent first and were the slowest?

Also, interesting to see that all phones had the same upload speeds?
Click to expand...
Any chance your ISP upload speed is limited to 10-15 Mbps? Speedtest doesn't purely test your wifi speed. The result you get is a combination of your broadband, LAN and device bottlenecks.

Like others have mentioned, don't run Speedtest at the same time. Do it one at a time for each device for a more accurate reading.
 
Too many variables testing across internet. It's better to do a local WIFI throughput test between client and server. Moto X and Nexus 5 both support 5GHz 802.11ac so it should be similar to the Note 3 that I regularly see ~200Mbps using WebDAV protocol.
 
rui no onna said:
Any chance your ISP upload speed is limited to 10-15 Mbps? Speedtest doesn't purely test your wifi speed. The result you get is a combination of your broadband, LAN and device bottlenecks.

Like others have mentioned, don't run Speedtest at the same time. Do it one at a time for each device for a more accurate reading.
Click to expand...

My ISP is ComCast and my max limit is 150MB/s download (under ideal conditions). And yes, I did one device at a time, not all at once (which is why they all pinged within a 2-3 millisecond range). The difference in speed between the Nexus 5, Moto X and iPhone 6/6+ was really mindblowing though!
 
Speedtest seems to use different host servers too, seems pretty random but you can manually select the server in the options. Ping rates looked like the same server though...
 
I'm still using my AEBS that I bought in 2008 so I am sure that if I bought the latest one, my WiFi speeds would improve. For now though, I get faster LTE speeds through T-Mobile so I am in no hurry to upgrade.
 
Interesting WiFi SpeedTests with Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Moto X OG, iPhone 6 and 6+

did you remember to check if wifi optimizing for saving the battery wasnt checked (default in android). Any difference when unchecked? i got the same numbers anyway...

test scenario:
- speedtest.net app: oneplus one 10ms ping around 50/10 and the same server (same country) ipad air2 21ms ping around 72/10.
abit more real life:
- bandwidhtplace webpage: oneplus one 22ms ping and around 18/9 and the same server (another country) ipad air2 22ms ping and around 11/9
- connection 100/10
- 2,4 ghz band
- run several times each tests
 
I don't have it in front of me, but my Lumia is slower on wifi then my IP6+
 
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
Back