According to a study by OpenSignal, Samsung phones have high LTE speeds when stacked against iPhones and Huawei phones.
OpenSignal, an independent global standard, analyzed over 23 million devices from across 72 countries from April to June in 2019. One of the main conclusions of the study is that Samsung users experienced the fastest download speeds in almost 40 countries.
In the US alone, Samsung users experienced download speeds of 8.2 Mbps faster than iPhone users. When OpenSignal analyzed the download speeds in India — it concluded that Samsung users experienced 0.6 Mbps faster than second-placed Huawei.
Although the number is negligible, it does put iPhones download speeds in India at the 3rd position.
However, OpenSignal points out in the study that slower download speeds could be possible because of the weak smartphone market in that specific country.
The study took the example of Apple’s success in Brazil, Taiwan, and Costa Rica, where users generally identify more with high-priced smartphones.
Obviously, there are other mainstream factors that affect download speeds, as the study suggests. These include the ability to connect to more frequency bands, the ability to connect to multiple radio bands simultaneously, the use of multiple antennas, and the brand of modem.
While dividing smartphone users into top-tier, mid-tier and low-tier on the basis of the network’s capabilities, the study noted that Samsung phones have the highest download speeds in the top-tier.
“Their (Samsung) users enjoy 26.6 Mbps globally compared with 25.1 Mbps for Apple users and just 24.4 Mbps for Huawei users,” the researchers write.
Apple users in the mid-tier have a slight advantage over Huawei and Samsung. However, the study notes that nearly all Apple devices are priced similarly to Samsung and Huawei high-end models.
“Apple’s challenge is that few of its current models are high-tier devices.” the study notes. Apple’s iPhone XS and XS Max are the only devices in the high-tier. Despite this, the high tier marks up 14% of the total iPhones on the market.
