Apple's Chip Choices May Leave Some iPhone Users in Slow Lane | Hacker News Reader

Apple's Chip Choices May Leave Some iPhone Users in Slow Lane

bloomberg.com

32 pointsimnikos6 comments

This article is horrible. The first 10 paragraphs have nothing to do with the actual subject in the title (the performance gap between GSM and CDMA iphones).

> The component at the root of the performance gap is the modem, a tiny chip buried deep inside a phone’s innards that turns wireless signals into data and voice. The iPhone 7 is the first Apple phone for several years to have versions with different modems. Verizon users get an iPhone 7 with Qualcomm’s latest X12 modem -- capable of downloading data at up to 600 megabits per second. AT&T customers get a handset with an Intel modem that tops out at 450 megabits per second.

This is the key paragraph, and it's a good chunk down in the article. The 3rd paragraph is also misleading- if the title of the article is about the AT&T iphone being slower than the Verizon iphone, why would you first talk about some features being disabled on the Verizon baseband? Worse, this off-topic mention actually came before the primary focus of the article.

Also, the difference in basebands has been known since launch day, this isn't news.

Agreed. I wouldn't describe 450 mbps as "slow lane" either.

I can't even get that over a wire where I live.

Actually, the Intel modems have been experimentally proven to perform ~20% worse at the same signal conditions. It is also notable that this is not only a problem in the US, but also with carriers in europe where they use the Intel modem.

(At least that's what two separate people working on the analog part have confirmed)

I've got an iPhone 7 Plus on the UK network Three. There are significant issues connecting to, and retaining a connection to their 4G network.

Three keep telling me that they're still working closely with Apple to identify the issue but they don't have any sort of timeline for a resolution.

I have an iPhone 7+ / Verizon in Manhattan. I just ran the test and have 83 Mbit/s DL , 14 Mbit/s UL (-81 dBm Band 2). This is typical for this area sometimes it gets as high as 100 Mbit/s DL. Sometimes it is the 30 Mbit/s DL.

Verizon has the most spectrum in NYC. For practical purposes this combination in the NYC market is great.

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