iPhone 17 vs. iPhone 16 Wi-Fi Speeds: New Study Reveals the Winner

[coolfactor]

Why would WiFi speed be different across countries? I'm not talking about the available internet speed. Wouldn't testing it on any 1gb connection be enough to tell the difference between 16 and 17? or am I missing something.

Wi-Fi has nothing to do with the internet connection.

Device <--> WiFi <--> Internet

The connection between the devices and WiFi router make up the internal LAN (Local Area Network), and several devices are likely on that network.

The WiFi router then acts as a "bridge" to the second network, referred to as the WAN (Wide-Area Network), which is likely shared by many of your neighbors.

So, measuring these two networks independently is important to gauge true network throughput to the internet. Bottlenecks can exist in either or both networks, and hardware plays an important role. Different countries will be employing different hardware.

 

[JohnC1959]

I wonder what my M2 MacBook Air uses. I just now noticed that my iPhone 16 is twice as fast at downloads than my M2 Air at least while sitting out on my patio.

 

[UliBaer]

This test tests the ISP-speed, not the Wifi speed - it's useless.
Also the 17 came out a year later after the 16, so the main ISP speeds would have increased by that time - again useless.

What's the Pixel use for a wifi chip?

AFAIK the Pixel uses a Samsung 5400 modem chip for connectivity.

 

[falainber]

The OOKLA tests are superior as they test for millions of data points that are achieved under real world conditions, but not a laboratory with controlled wifi. But I guess you knew that and are fishing for the rage

OOKLA tests report the results that are impossible to interpret. They definitely do not report the capabilities of the phone's WiFi (if only indirectly).

 

[bzgnyc2]

The OOKLA tests are superior as they test for millions of data points that are achieved under real world conditions, but not a laboratory with controlled wifi. But I guess you knew that and are fishing for the rage

Except it's unclear they controlled for confounding variables other than country, and those confounding variables are larger than the differences between any recent phone in the <500Mbps segment. But then I guess you knew that...

 

[JasonQG]

Why would WiFi speed be different across countries? I'm not talking about the available internet speed. Wouldn't testing it on any 1gb connection be enough to tell the difference between 16 and 17? or am I missing something.

Due to different regulations, the frequencies used can vary from country to country

 

[Howard2k]

Anyone who knows how networks work knows that this is a dumb interpretation of a study.

Terrible.

If you want to study wifi performance, study wifi performance would be step 1.

 

[pantherman007]

Cool. Now roll out that new AppleTV 4K with the N1 chip in it.

 

[commander.data]

Why would WiFi speed be different across countries? I'm not talking about the available internet speed. Wouldn't testing it on any 1gb connection be enough to tell the difference between 16 and 17? or am I missing something.

Different countries have different regulations governing what frequency bands and power levels WiFi is allowed to use which may influence achievable WiFi speeds depending on country.

 

[loyalraccoon]

Yeah but the iPhone Air only has one crap speaker instead of two crap speakers so it’s a wash. /s

 

[ikramerica]

Not sure about wifi issues but bluetooth is notorious for being suseptible to radio interference from various sources. I have my car's bluetooth drop out now and then. Usually it's just for several second.

Never had bluetooth disconnect in any VW we have owned with it. (6). Maybe it’s your car.

 

[svish]

Great that Apple's custom chips are performing very well in their 1st generation itself. Don't think there is any loss in shifting to Apple's own chips. Think it will help in obtaining better battery life too.

 

[k1121j]

Now if they could just figure out why it can’t keep a WiFi or Bluetooth connection to CarPlay consistently. I’m tired of submitting feedback reports with every beta release, but I still do it…

Because it’s beta?

 

[G725]

I’m tired of submitting feedback reports with every beta release, but I still do it…

Are you supposed to submit a new report with every update?
I always add a message to existing reports but I hardly get any response from Apple. Some reports are open since multiple years and they are just a monologue.

 

[dannys1]

Just wondering when homes and businesses could truly take full advantage of wifi 7? There would probably need to be a LOT of VERY expensive infrastructure remodeling to take full advantage of it.

Not really - Wifi7 AP's from UniFi are cheap, no more expensive than Wifi 5, Wifi6 or Wifi6E were. I'm updated for Wifi7 now, the problem is the client devices don't support it properly yet.

 

[rostbond]

So, to achieve that fantastic speed I need to change my phone, right?

 

[rostbond]

Not really - Wifi7 AP's from UniFi are cheap, no more expensive than Wifi 5, Wifi6 or Wifi6E were.

And you can even buy the UniFi Express 7 for $199, which is both a router and an AP (I know you know — this is for others).

 

[GuilleA]

Max I could get with my iPhone 16 was 1.4 Gbps. It could be double that but no iPhone supports 320 MHz channels at 6 GHz.

 

[The Oak]

I wonder if the iPhone 17 antenna redesign has anything to do with this also. The WiFi chip can only do so much with what signal it has. If you increase the phone's ability to pull in signals one would think that would translate to faster speeds.

 

[SactoGuy18]

On my iPhone 16 Plus, I am getting circa 650 megabits/second download speed and 40 megabits/second upload speed through a WiFi 5 connection using the Xfinity XB6 (CGM4140COM) modem-router connected to Xfinity cable service. I may upgrade soon to an Xfinity XB8 (CGM4981COM) modem-router that could push it to nearly 1 gigabits/second download speed because my iPhone 16 Plus will support 6 GHz WiFi 6E.

 

[JohnC1959]

On my iPhone 16 Plus, I am getting circa 650 megabits/second download speed and 40 megabits/second upload speed through a WiFi 5 connection using the Xfinity XB6 (CGM4140COM) modem-router connected to Xfinity cable service. I may upgrade soon to an Xfinity XB8 (CGM4981COM) modem-router that could push it to nearly 1 gigabits/second download speed because my iPhone 16 Plus will support 6 GHz WiFi 6E.

Note that getting those top speeds probably means you are in the very same room as the router as 6GHz doesn't work so well through walls.

 

[zscale72]

What's the Pixel use for a wifi chip?

It uses a variant of the Broadcom chip used in iphone16 . So can't make any inference on the N1 perfomrance.

 

[gaximus]

Wi-Fi has nothing to do with the internet connection.

Device <--> WiFi <--> Internet

The connection between the devices and WiFi router make up the internal LAN (Local Area Network), and several devices are likely on that network.

The WiFi router then acts as a "bridge" to the second network, referred to as the WAN (Wide-Area Network), which is likely shared by many of your neighbors.

So, measuring these two networks independently is important to gauge true network throughput to the internet. Bottlenecks can exist in either or both networks, and hardware plays an important role. Different countries will be employing different hardware.

Right, but what I’m saying is, that comparing WiFi speeds, the internet shouldn’t matter, as long as it’s fast enough. They probably tested both devices on the same network/wifi. So the internet shouldn’t matter, so then the location shouldn’t matter. But as others have pointed out, the WiFi is different in other countries due to regulation on the frequencies.

 

[MacBH928]

i reach similar internet-over-wifi speeds with my iphone se 2022 , what am i missing?

 

[Howard2k]

i reach similar internet-over-wifi speeds with my iphone se 2022 , what am i missing?

Nothing at all.

It's a super dumb "study" that seems to be perpetuated by people who don't understand how networks work.

They should simply test the wifi chip performance in a clean environment.