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iPhone 12 Pro x55 LTE vs intel modem

jay968 said:
1 - Are you sure the 12 was on 4g and not 5g? I've never heard of a 4g phone getting 470mb. Or was WiFi possibly on at the time?
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Nope phone was on 4G, we have very good 4G coverage in Australia, was getting over 400mb every time, had 5G and WiFi turned off.


Some people can get a even higher speed on 4G in Australia

ran the same test on my xs max same sim, same spot, was just hitting 200mb.

If only we got good value when it comes to nbn internet, if you want anything over 50mb upload, it’ll cost you a arm and a leg.
 

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Tested my xs max again just now, decent speeds, but nowhere near the 12 when I had it, the Qualcomm modem is a beast compared to the intel modems.

Hope we never see intel modems in phones again.
 

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My LTE (4G) connection on my iPhone Xr in the area where I live (Spain) ranged from 15 to 17mbps (download). I just got my new iPhone 12 a couple days ago, although there’s no 5G in my area, download speeds are 4 times faster!! Around 80mbps! Awesome. Very happy, indeed.
 
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ferretex said:
My LTE (4G) connection on my iPhone Xr in the area where I live (Spain) ranged from 15 to 17mbps (download). I just got my new iPhone 12 a couple days ago, although there’s no 5G in my area, download speeds are 4 times faster!! Around 80mbps! Awesome. Very happy, indeed.
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No contest the Qualcomm modems are absolute tanks, intel modems don’t even come close.
 
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I’m more concerned about the phone connecting and holding onto calls. Is the Qualcomm modem that much better? My 11 pro sucks in places it should work no problem
 
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Can somebody please do a signal strength comparison if you still own an older iphone along with a 12?
Testing speeds is NOT an indication of what kind of signal strength the phone is capable of receiving. You need to find out the db and the only way to do this with an iphone is by using the service menu in the phone.
If you have both an iphone 12 and an 11 or earlier (at least one from the last couple of years or so), google "how to test signal strength on an iphone." The method is different for ios14 than it had previously been, but any iphone can do it. Use SIM cards from the same carrier in each phone or swap one out if you must, but sit and watch the results for awhile. Don't make a judgement based on a couple of seconds of results. The db levels will change quite a bit over time. Unless you are consistently seeing at least a 5 or 6db difference, the signal strength capabilities are the same. The lower the number, the better the signal. But remember, you're dealing with negative numbers so something like -70db is better than -90db. Anything from -65db to -80db is a very very good signal. Anything from -120db to -130db is pretty bad. -140 would pretty much indicate you have no service.
Can anyone do this? I've been asking in various forums for almost 2 weeks now.
 
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jay968 said:
Can somebody please do a signal strength comparison if you still own an older iphone along with a 12?
Testing speeds is NOT an indication of what kind of signal strength the phone is capable of receiving. You need to find out the db and the only way to do this with an iphone is by using the service menu in the phone.
If you have both an iphone 12 and an 11 or earlier (at least one from the last couple of years or so), google "how to test signal strength on an iphone." The method is different for ios14 than it had previously been, but any iphone can do it. Use SIM cards from the same carrier in each phone or swap one out if you must, but sit and watch the results for awhile. Don't make a judgement based on a couple of seconds of results. The db levels will change quite a bit over time. Unless you are consistently seeing at least a 5 or 6db difference, the signal strength capabilities are the same. The lower the number, the better the signal. But remember, you're dealing with negative numbers so something like -70db is better than -90db. Anything from -65db to -80db is a very very good signal. Anything from -120db to -130db is pretty bad. -140 would pretty much indicate you have no service.
Can anyone do this? I've been asking in various forums for almost 2 weeks now.
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Can't do it right now; but wife currently has an 11; and I have a 12. I can post results later.
 
jay968 said:
Can somebody please do a signal strength comparison if you still own an older iphone along with a 12?
Testing speeds is NOT an indication of what kind of signal strength the phone is capable of receiving. You need to find out the db and the only way to do this with an iphone is by using the service menu in the phone.
If you have both an iphone 12 and an 11 or earlier (at least one from the last couple of years or so), google "how to test signal strength on an iphone." The method is different for ios14 than it had previously been, but any iphone can do it. Use SIM cards from the same carrier in each phone or swap one out if you must, but sit and watch the results for awhile. Don't make a judgement based on a couple of seconds of results. The db levels will change quite a bit over time. Unless you are consistently seeing at least a 5 or 6db difference, the signal strength capabilities are the same. The lower the number, the better the signal. But remember, you're dealing with negative numbers so something like -70db is better than -90db. Anything from -65db to -80db is a very very good signal. Anything from -120db to -130db is pretty bad. -140 would pretty much indicate you have no service.
Can anyone do this? I've been asking in various forums for almost 2 weeks now.
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I would also very much like to know this. My iphone XS has had disappointing connectivity and I always thought it was because I had moved towns. I didn't think there could be much variation between phones and I certainly didn't think a flagship phone could be so bad in the most basic and essential task of just calling someone. I thought I was certain of getting an 11 pro, but the improved modem might be the only reason for me to go 12 pro.
 
Kung said:
Can't do it right now; but wife currently has an 11; and I have a 12. I can post results later.
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Thanks so much, I'd really appreciate it. I want to go back to an iphone as I do prefer them to Adnroid but will not do so until I get confirmation that they have improved reception. I HAVE seen one review which claims he's done some dBm testing. He says the Androids still do a bit better but the iphone 12 is now very close. I'd just like some more confirmations of this.
Thanks again.
 
Hyloba said:
I would also very much like to know this. My iphone XS has had disappointing connectivity and I always thought it was because I had moved towns. I didn't think there could be much variation between phones and I certainly didn't think a flagship phone could be so bad in the most basic and essential task of just calling someone. I thought I was certain of getting an 11 pro, but the improved modem might be the only reason for me to go 12 pro.
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At one time I owned both an Xs and a Pixel 3a (which I still have) and consistently saw a 6 to 8db difference between them. Iphones have traditionally had inferior reception but usually not big enough for most people to realize.
 
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jay968 said:
Thanks
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I was planning on doing this when I receive my 12 Pro Max on Friday. I know the signal on my 11 Pro is complete crap at/around my office (in field test mode the other day showed -115dbm) and have been super curious to see if the new phones are any better.

What's frustrating is the phone shows a decent signal in the status bar. It's just completely unusable. My iPad Pro on the same network shows similar signal strength, but actually works just fine.
 
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ilikewhey said:
and yet there are folks defending how competitive intel modems were all these years 😂
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I'm really happy to hear this because LTE speeds on my Verizon iPhone 11 Pro Max sucks even when I have full bars. I've even reported to Verizon before but Verizon blamed Apple and Apple blamed Verizon.
 
SBA said:
I was planning on doing this when I receive my 12 Pro Max on Friday. I know the signal on my 11 Pro is complete crap at/around my office (in field test mode the other day showed -115dbm) and have been super curious to see if the new phones are any better.

What's frustrating is the phone shows a decent signal in the status bar. It's just completely unusable. My iPad Pro on the same network shows similar signal strength, but actually works just fine.
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Thanks! I am really anxious to see someone do this as I really can't find any reliable comparisons anywhere. The only review that addresses this that I've seen came from ZDNet. He said that he did do some comparison with other iphones as well as Android. He says that The 12 is an improvement over the 11 but still not quite as good as most of the Androids. He says it's about a 2 or 3 dBm difference.
I'd just like some confirmation of this before I make the purchase. I'm really not in the mood for buying another phone and then returning it if it runs out to be not much better than the 11. My wife has an 11, I have a Galaxy S20 FE 5G and my phone gets about a 6 or 7 dBm better signal.
The Samsung is just too big for me, plus I do prefer ios to Android. I also like dual SIM capability.
So I appreciate that you cane here and look forward to reading your results. Please remember to have patience and don't make a judgement on a few seconds of viewing the signal strength. It fluctuates too ofen and the phones are very sensitive to the exact position they in. When I've done my own testing, I've swapped out the positioning of the phones from one another, and sometimes even that will appear to make one phone do better than the other.
And please, please, please don't base anything whatsoever on download speeds. This is NOT an indication of signal reception.
Also, the bars are meaningless as well. They are arbitrary (there is no standard) and one manufacturer can show 4 bars for the same signal that another shows only 1.
 
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Robbosan said:
sold the pro
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Well you made the statement that the 12 is much better. We've been talking here about signal strength in dBm. Not speed tests which alone are not an indication of signal strength, and not based on the number of bars displayed by the phone which also really don't tell anything. Did you ever compare dBm? Or are you basing what you say on observations?
 
jay968 said:
Well you made the statement that the 12 is much better. We've been talking here about signal strength in dBm. Not speed tests which alone are not an indication of signal strength, and not based on the number of bars displayed by the phone which also really don't tell anything. Did you ever compare dBm? Or are you basing what you say on observations?
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Calm down , i tested with calls before i sold it, buy one and figure it out yourself. I said nothing about data lol.
 
Robbosan said:
Calm down , i tested with calls before i sold it, buy one and figure it out yourself. I said nothing about data lol.
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Well that's fine but it's difficult to know if you have anything solid behind what you claim without any examples of why you're saying it.
"12 is much better than my 11 pro. The end"
"sold the pro"
Even now, "I tested calls before I sold it, buy one and figure it out yourself."

I have said in this thread I'd like to buy one but am not going to before I get some dBm results so that I don't waste my time. This is why I asked whether someone here who owns both can do a signal strength comparison. I then went on to discuss db and gave an indication of what the numbers meant.
Others have said that they'd like to get the same kind of evaluation.

I'm sorry and I'm sure you mean well but frankly you haven't said anything.
 
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