That's why apple decided to pay back Qualcomm what they owe....Apple ready to drop intel like a bad habit.
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iPhone XS Max Signal Strength Compared to OnePlus 7 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S10
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In the end, I couldn't care less about the signal strength of Android phones, or any other hardware feature that they have. Android is crap. It's crap coated crap with crap filling.
There is a direct relationship between the maximum capabilities that the modem is capable of and the average actual speeds that you can experience in the real-world. Check out the tables in this article for an explanation:
https://www.qualcomm.com/news/onq/2...es-can-give-you-fastest-data-speeds-available
I did the same thing and sadly it’ll have to live another year as I’m not getting another iPhone until it has Qualcomm as an option again. Too many dropped calls and horrible 4g speeds in rural areas....
If this article is meant for the U.S. then I would have liked to see another chart per carrier. Who cares about Band 4 if your carrier doesn't use it.
As the article states Intel scrapped its 5g prospects and if I'm not mistaken Apple just hired the man that was heading that department amidst litigation. That whole Qualcomm lawsuit.lol. What I find interesting is Apple hires him more than likely to build their own 5g chips in house, but if you're hiring the guy from a company that just scrapped that project is apple now moving toward a lack luster 5g modem just to make it themselves?
As the article states Intel scrapped its 5g prospects and if I'm not mistaken Apple just hired the man that was heading that department amidst litigation. That whole Qualcomm lawsuit.lol. What I find interesting is Apple hires him more than likely to build their own 5g chips in house, but if you're hiring the guy from a company that just scrapped that project is apple now moving toward a lack luster 5g modem just to make it themselves?
Soo iPhone is slowly but surely becoming predominantly Samsung parts?? About time to catch up.
The Samsung Galaxy S10 and the new OnePlus 7 Pro are both flagship smartphones that are designed to compete with the iPhone XS Max, and to see how their LTE chips compare, PCMag teamed up with Cellular Insights to test the signal strength of the new devices.
Apple's iPhone XS Max is equipped with an XMM7560 modem chip from Intel, while the Galaxy S10 and the OnePlus 7 Pro are using Qualcomm's X24 modem, which theoretically offers better performance.
The Intel XMM7560 modem in the iPhone XS Max supports supports 5-carrier aggregation but offers 1Gb/s maximum theoretical data transfer speeds, while the Qualcomm X24 in the Galaxy S10 has max theoretical speeds of 2Gb/s (it uses 7-carrier aggregation) and the OnePlus 7 Pro has max theoretical speeds of 1.2Gb/s (lower because it uses 5-carrier aggregation like the iPhone).
iPhone XS Max in blue, OnePlus 7 Pro in orange, Samsung Galaxy S10 in gray, and LG V40 in yellow
In testing on LTE band 4 with good signal, there wasn't a lot of difference in performance between the iPhone XS Max, the newer smartphones from Samsung and OnePlus, and the LG V40, which PCMag added in because it was 2018's best performing phone in terms of cellular speed.
All of the smartphones performed similarly, but the Samsung Galaxy S10 did see some of the slowest speeds, and at peak signal, the iPhone XS came in behind the OnePlus 7 Pro and the LG V40.
In a test with poorer LTE signal, the iPhone XS Max saw the slowest speeds and was outperformed by all of the Qualcomm chips. The iPhone XS Max was quite a bit slower than the Galaxy S10 and the OnePlus 7 Pro specifically.
Starting in 2020, Apple is no longer going to use Intel chips and is instead going to transition to Qualcomm's 5G chips. Intel has decided that it's exiting the 5G smartphone modem chip business leaving Apple no choice but to rely on Qualcomm technology and perhaps some chips from Samsung.
Apple and Qualcomm recently settled a vicious legal battle which had seen Apple refusing to use Qualcomm chips. Because of the dispute, Apple used Intel chips in the 2018 iPhones, and is expected to continue to use Intel chips for the 2019 iPhones.
Though the legal battle is over, Apple isn't likely to have time to swap over to Qualcomm modem chips for the 2019 iPhones, and Intel has confirmed that it's going to continue to supply 4G chips to meet its current obligations.
Article Link: iPhone XS Max Signal Strength Compared to OnePlus 7 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S10
Not surprising one bit. The terrible speeds in weaker areas is the biggest reason I returned my launch day XS Max. It was on par, maybe a little bit faster than my Qualcomm 7 Plus at my house where I get full signal. Drive down the road a little bit to a very weak area...and boy oh boy was the XS Max slow as can be. $1300 for a nice shiny gold color turd. 2020 can't come soon enough!
I just looked through my Speedtest logs which go back to 2015 and my fastest time was 89.1Mbps about a month ago on my XS. I'd love to see a result even half of that at 500Mbps, which is what I get on my home WiFi.
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I wish there was a better way of quantifying this for the average user. Like when I buy a desktop that is 3.6GHz, I expect it to run at 3.6GHz minimum. But then there are things like USB drives, which are clearly 5400rpm spinning 2.5" drives, but say things like "Up to 5 Gbit/s" even though in reality you'll be lucky to get a fifth of that because they're listing the bus speed. I wish the advertising laws in the U.S. were better about this sort of thing, but the people writing the laws don't understand any of it. Heck, I'm a fairly technical person and I know enough to know that I don't know much.
Anyway, I doubt most people on their phone would even notice a difference between 100Mbps and 150Mbps. I went from 200Mbps to 500Mbps at home last year (got a cheaper rate renegotiating my contract) and barely notice it aside from huge Xbox One X 4K optimized games downloading faster and things like my iCloud Photo Library when I got my new Mac. This is why I'm not really excited for 5G, aside from the decreased ping time. My buddy lives a few states away and we keep up playing games together. He just built a house in the woods and his internet sucks so bad that he has to use 4G to play games now. 5G would be great for him and not being that far from the headquarters of AT&T in Dallas means it could actually happen within a reasonable amount of time.
Forget Qualcomm. iPhone has a processor that is at least a year ahead of the competition and a OS that actually works.
Doesn't matter when it comes to modem where Qualcomm is the best option for Apple (though there are others with great modems, but probably not an option).
Interesting viewpoint that the majority of the worlds phone users have non working devices, who knew.
Reception-wise, my 8+ is far worse than my 7+ was, so I cannot say I am surprised at the Max being slower. I’ll hang on until 2020.
Reception has been good for me with my Max, but I live in the Philly area, which helps. I doubled my speeds from my X so I am happy there.
I found my XS the same as most reviewers here, good speed when in bigger cities and weak or no signal at all in rural areas, with my Galaxy s9 I never had any reception issues no matter where I were, I have captured a screen shot from a speed test in Irvington NJ which proves the XS get great speed in bigger cities
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Lg v40 .... People buy that? I've seen it in store but come on? You couldn't find any other 4th phone to use in that comparison?
Count your blessings. I live in a rural area on TMobile. I’m happy if I get 3MB down and 800K up. 600K down is a regular thing. The telecoms will always let you down - the modem you have is the last thing to worry about.
The most discouraging part of lag that needs to be reviewed is in the sports apps. It is my observation that more consumers/friends swap phones and carriers over not tracking mileage correctly for biking, jogging, or walks. This may not sound big until you're out on a track with marked mileage posts and you realize your exercise app is way off. You've just completed your 4th lap around a football field but your smartphone sports app is saying you've only completed a half mile. It can be just as frustrating when it's easy over too. My wife and I switched from Sprint for this very reason. With our new carrier for the area we jog it is now easy more accurate. We recently traded for the iPhone Max and series 4 Apple watches from Note 9 and the first time we hit our usual track we noticed that they were way off. Back to Verizon we went and swapped for the Samsung s10+ and Galaxy watch. Now it tracks close to right on the mileage markers. I believe carriers fail to realize how important this is since so many people now use these mileage tracking devices and apps. I also feel cell phone manufacturers place way too much emphasis on the camera when they should be placing way more on GPS accuracy.
You’ve hit the nail on the head. Android is a malware infested mess. I’m in a 1 to 2 bar signal area on TMobile. (Verizon has no signal, and I would never do business with ATT under any circumstances). My Xr is way better than my 6s+ was in these crappy signal circumstances.
Ok, I've never seen anything above about 20 down and 10 up on LTE in a decent size city on my XS. Is that not normal? It usually stays around 4-5 down and 3-4 up for me. Also when i get the 20 down and 10 up I'm in line of site to a Verizon cell tower...
Living in a lower signal area, this makes me feel better about being irritated by my lack of signal sometimes. I have to assume Apple was well aware of the limitations, and went with it anyway, for whatever reason.