LTE Speeds of iPhone 6 and iPhone 5s Compared in New Video

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According to Apple, both the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus have "faster LTE download speeds" than the iPhone 5s, reaching up to 150Mbps thanks to the inclusion of the Qualcomm MDM9625M LTE chip, which supports LTE Advanced.

A demonstration of the speed difference between the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 6 when connected to a high-quality LTE network has been conducted by iClarified, suggesting the iPhone 6 is able to reach much higher speeds than the iPhone 5s.

The test, which was conducted in London, Ontario, Canada on the Fido network, shows the iPhone 6 topping out at download speeds of 101Mbps while the iPhone 5s reaches 35Mbps. Upload speeds are similarly improved, reaching 27Mbps on the iPhone 6.


According to iClarified, the tests, which were conducted using the Ookla SpeedTest.net app, were done in a spot in the city where the best reception was found.

We were able to consistently reach speeds in the high 90s with the iPhone 6. The absolute highest download speed we were able to obtain was 111 Mbps. I'm confident that if the conditions were optimal we could have obtained even higher speeds.

First introduced in 2013, LTE Advanced takes advantage of carrier aggregation technology, combining separate spectrums into a single faster connection to increase data speeds and network capacity. Several carriers offer the technology, and the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are Apple's first devices to support it. Because not all carriers support LTE Advanced and due to differences in connection strength, not all users may see increased speeds on Apple's new devices.

Along with LTE Advanced, Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus offer several other connectivity improvements, including support for up to 20 different LTE bands. With additional bands (7 more than the iPhone 5s), iPhone users are able to connect to more LTE networks when traveling abroad and LTE connections are available in more countries. The phones also include support for voice over LTE (VoLTE), improving voice quality and allowing some users to access voice and data simultaneously over LTE for the first time.

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Top Rated Comments

aristotle Avatar
aristotle
144 months ago
Be careful with testing your speed too much if you have a data cap on your plan as you can easily burn through your cap with these tests.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
darkslide29 Avatar
darkslide29
144 months ago
Not nearly this high for my AT&T!
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
oatman13 Avatar
oatman13
144 months ago
I can definitely verify this. About two weeks ago I did a speed test on the T-Mobile network using my new iPhone 6 Plus and I achieved this speed test. What amazes me more than the speed is the low latency.
lte speeds comparision iphone 6 5s image
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
harleyb Avatar
harleyb
144 months ago
I'm getting even higher speeds in Toronto, at my office near Dufferin and Dupont. Good thing I'm still on the grandfathered 6GB plan!
lte speeds comparision iphone 6 5s image
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jclo Avatar
jclo
144 months ago
Video flashes at 0:25 looks fake.

This is actually explained in the iClarified article: "The flicker on the iPhone 6 is an app issue which occurs when speeds reach a high level. It's not a video capture issue."

http://www.iclarified.com/44419/iphone-lte-speed-test-iphone-6-vs-iphone-5s-video
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Krizoitz Avatar
Krizoitz
144 months ago
Call me paranoid

Whats to prevent a provider like AT&T or Verizon from detecting when you are connecting to one of these speed test servers and optimizing your traffic so their network looks as good as possible? Seems like the only indepdent and truly accurate way to verify network speed would be to test using a custom app that runs against random servers that the providers can't precache before hand.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments