iPhone 16 Pro Models Reportedly Boast Up to 26% Faster 5G Speeds

[FelixDerKater]

Well, you were the one suggesting they had to become an MVNO, are you now changing your mind? Then again, Google Fi is just an MVNO for T-Mobile/Deutsche Telekom. So what is your point actually? It is simply the T-Mobile network. T-Mobile does that for most cars as well with inbuilt systems. Really nothing unique or special apart from marketing, it seems. Now, don't get me wrong the T-Mobile network is pretty good in my experience, but I don't see the value or need to start an MVNO and put your own label on it.

It is not simply T-Mobile, but claims to be a pairing of carriers, whichever is most functional at the time. At one point US Cellular was the backup to T-Mobile.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

It is not simply T-Mobile, but claims to be a pairing of carriers, whichever is most functional at the time. At one point US Cellular was the backup to T-Mobile.

Scratch the surface. It’s T Mobile But I happily stand corrected when presented with evidence that shows differently.

 

[greg5green]

Does anybody know whether or not any of the carrier SKUs will offer any frequencies that others don't? In other words, if I buy an Iphone 16 Pro, will it matter whether it is a carrier specific SKU or an Apple SKU? Or are they all identical?

In the past some of the carriers offered wider ranges of frequencies (generally with AT&T the widest).

It's by country/region now. All the US carriers get the same SKUs. Here's a list of the frequencies for each country/region's models: https://www.apple.com/iphone/cellular/

 

[greg5green]

Scratch the surface. It’s T Mobile But I happily stand corrected when presented with evidence that shows differently.

Yeah, it's just T-Mobile and EE Three (I think) now lol. Sprint doesn't exist anymore and US Cellular dropped from Fi before they were sold.

 

[greg5green]

Or could it be… network operators splitting up their spectrum to allocate more to download instead of upload? Your phone also connects to different bands (trading download for better upload and vice versa) and network conditions vary second to second, so one speed test is not exactly comparable to another even in the same location.

Yeah -- this is largely due to most of the 5G (at least in the US) being rolled out on frequencies that use TDD (time division duplex). These frequencies take one chunk of bandwidth (for ease of math, we'll say 10mhz), then split it up into slices. They then take those slices and allocate some to download and some to upload -- for ease of math, we'll say 9 download slices to every 1 upload slice, so 90% of the time the bandwidth is used for downloading and 10% of the time the bandwith is used for upload. Functionally giving say, 90mbit/s download and 10mbit/s upload out of the possible 100mbit/s of the 10mhz (this is just an easy math example again -- not necessarily a real world speed).

Most LTE (and most low and some mid band spectrum used for 5G) used/uses FDD -- frequency division duplex. These frequencies are split up so that upload and download both have dedicated slices of the bandwidth. 5mhz dedicated to download and 5mhz dedicated to upload -- resulting in 50mbit/s download and 50mbit/s upload out of the total 100mbit/s available.

FDD is a bit of a legacy thing -- back when cellular spectrum was largely used for phone calls (and before VoLTE/VoNR), it needed to be split up equally since you would be talking and listening, but since most of the spectrum is used for data now, and more used for download than upload, it makes sense to use TDD and split it up to favor downloads.

 

[greg5green]

One big advantage of this extra speed that no one has mentioned is the effects it will have on "race to sleep". One of the biggest uses of battery life is using the cellular modem. If the transmission of data takes 20% less time, that means the cellular modem can be put into low power mode 20% quicker, saving your battery life some.

 

[leonardocav]

Any update on this? is the X75 reserved only for pro models?

 

[ab2c4]

My issue is that one bar of service basically acts like no service. I shouldn’t need more than 1 bar to open Macrumors.
AT&T upstate NY

Verizon is bad also. I live/work in a major area in North Carolina and there are times I have three bars of signal yet my phone is unusable.