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iPhone X Models With Qualcomm Modem Still Have Faster LTE Speeds Than Those With Intel Modems
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The test is about LTE speeds as the signal strength gets weaker, in which case the Intel modem performs worse. Full bars? Both perform about the same (due to crippling of the Qualcomm modem). When you're only getting 1-2 bars? Test shows that the Intel modem struggles.
How did you get rid of your AT&T iPhone X? Thinking about doing the same and replacing it with a Verizon X
Not only did I notice a difference, the iPhone 7 with Intel was just awful for me and now my iPhone X isn’t that much better. I go from 2-3 bars of LTE outside with great speed to “no service” whatsoever indoors.
As a cellular phone, these devices are the worst I’ve ever owned. Had zero signal problems in the same locations with iPhone 3G, 3Gs, 4, 4s, and 6.
I drop to 1 bar in my house now and usually the internet stops working entirely. Calls work in the house but people complain I’m cutting out.
My house was basically in the eye of Hurricane Irma and we lost power/WiFi. I was locked in a closet in the center of the house (where signal is weakest) for hours and it would’ve been real damn nice to have a BASIC feature of a cellular phone... working cellular. The track was changing constantly at that point and the radio wasn’t talking about the cities the eye was actually hitting, just the big cities on either side (Orlando and Tampa). Not that I don’t live in a big city with good cell antennas. I live in the middle of Disney World resorts. There are towers everywhere.
Absolutely no difference in speed when I walk outside and hold my phone up to the sky... heck, maybe it’s even faster for all I know. But I wouldn’t notice that. I just notice that the damn phones are completely broken indoors.
Was really, really hoping the X would fix this crap. Apple wouldn’t sell me a universal phone.
Also, this is 2 separate 7 and now 2 separate X phones with Intel modems. My wife’s is identical in signal.
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/fy17-q4/Q4FY17DataSummary.pdf
No matter how you slice it, China buys more iPhones than Japan and Australia combined. It is one country that buys nearly 50% more than Japan and other Asia Pacific countries combined. Apple even has a VP and Director position just for China, an executive position no other country has.
If Apple wanted to save money by supplying China with Intel-based phones, they would have done it.
Delivery time for iPhone X in China is now 5 business days, less than any other country including the U.S. It shows you the focus on customer service by Apple on one specific country.
Maybe next year Apple will use a China Spreadtrum TD-SCDMA modem instead of one from Qualcomm.
Earlier this year Intel was fabbing a combo CPU + modem SoC for Spreadtrum, so everything that's needed should already be just about in place.
Why would Apple do that? The current Intel XMM 7480 modem in iPhone X already supports TD-SCDMA.
Even the older Intel modem in iPhone 7 supported TD-SCDMA.
Tea-Aholic's explanation is incorrect. It completely ignores the fact that Apple sells separate Intel and Qualcomm iPhone 7 in China. Apple stopped the modem lottery with iPhone 8 and X because consumers in China complained about the difference in performance.
Sorry to hear about your tough situation. I personally went out and made sure the iPhone 7 we purchased was unlocked and had the superior modem. I guess the lesson is, if you can take the steps to get the best, do it!
Where are you getting that China buys more iPhones than Japan and Australia combined? I'm not saying you are wrong, but that pdf only shows revenue by country for all apple products, it doesn't breakdown the iPhone units or iPhone revenue by country.
You sound like my cousin with his ethnocentric view of China/Asia, saying Asians only want the best and that's why Apple has to give them the Qualcomm model, but I believe China gets the Qualcomm model because CDMA is still used in rural parts of the country.
I highly doubt Apple is putting China in priority over the US and believe from a logistics and supply chain point of view, it would be faster to send out iPhone X in China since they are built, packaged, and shipped from there. In the US, our estimates are around 10 days, with stores getting them daily.
It's called common sense.
iPhone represents 2/3 of Apple's revenue. Unless you want to believe Chinese customers buy far more Watches, MacBooks, or Music than other countries, it's pretty obvious Apple sells more iPhones in China.
You belief about CDMA doesn't hold water because Apple sold iPhone 7 with Intel and Qualcomm modems in China. Apple now sells only Qualcomm iPhone 8 and X. CDMA is on the decline worldwide, so it makes sense Apple would sell Intel in China. I don't think it was a coincidence that Chinese customers were vocal about Intel/Qualcomm and now Apple sells only Qualcomm there.
UPS can deliver an iPhone in 15 hours from the Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou to the UPS hub in Memphis, TN. Everyone who has ordered an iPhone from Apple knows this route. The delivery time for iPhone X is 5 days in China. In the U.S., it's 10 days. There's a big difference between 15 hours and 5 days.
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Interesting. You're right. Intel lists TD-SCDMA in its XMM 7480 modem specs.
https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/platform-briefs/xmm-7480-brief.pdf
Yet Apple does not list it in its own Intel modem iPhone (A1901) tech specs.
https://www.apple.com/iphone-x/specs/
Apple disabled TD-SCDMA for Intel models outside of China.
If you look at the spec page for the Intel iPhone 7 in China, it has TD-SCDMA.
https://www.apple.com/cn/iphone-7/specs/
It wouldn't make sense for Intel to develop a modem that doesn't support a Chinese spec.
Apple sells only Qualcomm iPhone X and 8 in China, so obviously those models support TD-SCDMA.
https://www.apple.com/cn/iphone-x/specs/
Yeah that one works. Signal strength is all over the place. Anything special you want to know?
The Intel modem does NOT support TD-SCDMA. I know the tech specs of the Intel modem does, but it is DISABLED in the Intel modem. I had an Australian iPhone 7 Plus with the Intel modem and it did not work on China Mobile 3G. And you are also incorrect, the only iPhone 7 model sold in China was the Qualcomm model. The Intel model was not sold in China because again, no TD-SCDMA support.
Look at the spec sheet on Apple's website.
Qualcomm
2G: GSM/CDMA
3G: UMTS/EV-DO/TD-SCDMA
4G: LTE
Intel
2G: GSM
3G: UMTS
4G: LTE
I took the liberty to do more research, and there is a technical reason why Australia, China, India and New Zealand got the Qualcomm models despite being GSM countries.
The Qualcomm chip can do Carrier Aggregation on both FDD-LTE and TDD-LTE bands simultaneously with 80Mhz downstream bandwidth. That is a requirement of the networks in those countries to achieve fast LTE speeds. The Intel modem is limited to 60Mhz downlink.
I didn't bother reading the rest of your post because the stuff in your first paragraph is already wrong.
Apple China sells Intel and Qualcomm models of the iPhone 7. Both models support TD-SCDMA. Period.
https://www.apple.com/cn/iphone-7/specs/
Sorry, I didn't know there was a A1786 model just for China. When the iPhone 7 first launched, I was in China and they only sold the A1660/A1661 at the time.
I bought an Australia iPhone 7 Plus A1784 which has the Intel modem and it lacked TD-SCDMA.
Do you not understand the same modem is used for both wireless and cellular?
Uh no, the Apple/Murata USI module does. Apple exclusively use Broadcom IP for WiFi/Bluetooth
In other news, bears defecate in the woods.
Still. Let's go with Intel eh Apple as that'll maximise margins, the most important thing
Still. Let's go with Intel eh Apple as that'll maximise margins, the most important thing
I agree, except it’s extremely unreasonable to expect people to know that there are inferior modems out there. I’m a pretty tech-y guy and I expect to possibly go through a panel lottery with maybe displays sourced by both Samsung and LG. When I get strong-armed into only buying an AT&T phone BY Apple, I expect it’s a carrier locking situation... and I wasn’t even that bothered by that. I’ve been with AT&T in the same town since I actually had Cingular. I had NO complaints with AT&T. I was pretty familiar with carriers locking down phones. But i only learned about the Intel thing later, after I had spent months bitching about AT&T and their sudden drop in signal! They’re the real losers here. Apple is making their network look bad to stick it to Qualcomm. I was a happy customer for over 10 years and now I want to jump ship to Verizon, as I’m kind of stuck chugging along on Apple’s upgrade program and they make me get the AT&T phone. I should’ve just sold the 7 on EBay to pay it off, big mistake. But I wasn’t sure there was any way at all to buy an unlocked X from Apple.
Side note... I just checked into a hotel and was walking around my room as I typed this post. A pop up came up saying I had lost my data connection over cellular. I just updated to iOS 11.2 so this must be a new pop up. But I found it hilarious that I literally went down to having no data connection with 1 bar of 4g AS I wrote this. I walked TEN feet closer to the window in the same exact hotel room and I have 3 bars of LTE. This is just stupid. I have two Xs that cost me $2800. I feel like a freaking idiot willing to trust in Apple as they rip me off. Should’ve learned my damn lesson on the two 7 devices. Shame on me for expecting that generation was a fluke. Seriously.
[doublepost=1512291654][/doublepost]This Speedtest (image attached) speaks for itself. This is one side of my hotel room to the other side of my hotel room on an X with Intel modem. It’s just a regular hotel room... as in, small. Maybe 12 feet between tests. I have 3 bars of LTE by the window and 1-2 bars of 4G by the door to get in. The Intel modem is damn useless indoors.
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Sounds more like an assumed generalization than common sense. The numbers in that pdf from Apple didn't back your statement or come to an absolute conclusion. Again, I didn't say you were wrong, but facts are facts and you're guessing. Also, it's 55% of the revenue that is from iPhones.
So I'll also make an assumed generalization too and maybe Chinese customers were vocal they couldn't get service on their iPhone 7 Intel models in rural CDMA only areas, so Apple decided to just stick to one model in China. Or we could just assume the Chinese demanded the best, so Apple said, "Qualcomm is our best."
Just because UPS can, doesn't mean UPS does. Logistics with international shipping isn't as easy as you make it sound. US Customs and Border Protection isn't going to just sign off immediately for every individual phone for UPS to ship over. Those iPhones come in bulk on huge pallets to the US and are processed in bulk. My iPhone X went through customs three time, twice in ZhengZhou and again in Anchorage over a 5 day transport. Apple can expedite their shipments faster than smaller companies since they have agreements with Customs and UPS, but don't think just because UPS can ship it same day means Apple is going to pay them to do it for every pallet...that's why they come UPS Worldwide Express Saver.
That low 55% was recently because of only older iPhone styles being available.
Revenue from iPhones was 60+% during most of 2016 and had peaked at 69% last Christmas. It is hoped that the X will help that happen again.
Keep in mind that Apple's fiscal year runs a quarter ahead of the calendar year.
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TERRIBLE decision considering it put Apple over a year behind Samsung in wireless technology, and the Intel iPhones just suck. All the other manufacturers get along with Qualcomm. Apple should stop having a hissy fit and get along with them.
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As an interesting side note, even though the Intel iPhone is far inferior to the Qualcomm iPhone, the Intel iPhone works fine on Verizon, albeit with a slight loss in extremely rural and roaming coverage that is straight CDMA 1x and doesn't have LTE yet. There is a debate on Howard Forums about which one is better on Verizon, as the Qualcomm one has better reception, but can switch down to EVDO/1x, which is basically useless, whereas the Intel one has to stay on LTE.
You can't use an Intel iPhone on Sprint, but then again, their network is total garbage anyway.
My prediction is that in a year or two, once Sprint launches VoLTE, there is no more Qualcomm iPhone, and the iPhone drops CDMA support completely ahead of the shutdown of Verizon's CDMA network.