Study: Weak Signals Crush Intel iPhones




iPhone 7 units with Intel modems don't do nearly as well as their Qualcomm brethren in weak signal conditions.
0
shares
If you want the best iPhone 7, you need to get  the one with a Qualcomm modem.
According to a new study by Cellular Insights ,  the Qualcomm iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus units—that's the Verizon, Sprint and factory- unlocked models—have more than 30 percent  better performance in weak signal conditions  than the AT&T and T-Mobile models, which  have Intel modems.
Cellular Insights bought several iPhones at  retail, and hooked them up to a box that  simulates cellular networks to eliminate  variables. We don't have that expensive  equipment here. They tested the iPhones on  LTE band 4—which is used by AT&T, T-Mobile,  and Verizon—as well as band 12, which is used  by AT&T and T-Mobile.
Both models of iPhone work equally well in  strong signal conditions. We couldn't tell the  difference with good signal, Cellular Insights  couldn't, and you won't be able to, either. But  when the signal weakened to about -105dBm —think of that as one bar of signal—the testers saw a major difference. At -110dBm on Band 4,  the Qualcomm iPhone pushed 100Mbps while  the Intel iPhone only reached 60Mbps, the  report says.
"In all tests, the iPhone 7 Plus with the  Qualcomm modem had a significant  performance edge over the iPhone 7 Plus with  the Intel modem," the report says.
There are some other shenanigans going on,  too. Qualcomm's X12 modem supports a  coding scheme called 256 QAM, which further  speeds up LTE connections. That hasn't been  activated on the iPhone 7 , possibly to level the  playing field with the Intel modem, which  doesn't have the feature.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Google tries to unify advanced carrier messaging on Android, starting with Sprint

Image
Google saidon Friday that Sprint will be the first domestic wireless provider to adopt Rich Communication Services (RCS), an upgrade to the aging Short Message Service (SMS) standard. RCS enables a host of enhancements not possible over SMS including high-resolution photo and video sharing, confirmation that a recipient has read your message, group chat and freedom from that annoying 160 character limit. RCS isn’t exactly a new concept (it was conceived in 2007 with the initial release pushed out in 2012) nor are the features it delivers. Roughly a decade ago, the wireless landscape looked nothing like it does today. Wireless carriers, which for years had made their money selling service plans that focused on metered talk minutes, were now marketing unlimited text messaging as their key perk. It wasn’t long before services like BlackBerry Messenger and Apple’s  iMessagecame along, offering users a way to circumvent carrier texting and rendering SMS-focused service plans useless. As ad
Read more

“Here she is tonight in public, pretending not to hate Catholics.” Donald Trump & Hillary Clinton cheekily roast each other at charity dinner

Image
Billionaire businessman Donald Trump and his U.S Presidential rival Hillary Clinton took out time to have a go at each at a charity campaign event in Manhattanon Thursday night, barely 24 hours after the third and final U.S presidential election debate which ended on a bitter note. The annual dinner was a fundraiser for the powerful Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, and during presidential election years, both presidential nominees traditionally speak and Trump as well as Hillary seized on the opportunity to crack 'hard jokes' at each other. At the event at the Waldorf Astoria, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump sat separated by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Roman Catholic archbishop of New York. Trump started off light-heartedly but as time progressed, his tone started coming off as bitter. 'And a special hello to all of you in this room who have  known and loved me for many, many years — the politicians. “The truth is I’m a modest person,” “a carpenter who worked for his f
Read more

AmazonFresh Pickup is now open to Prime members in Seattle

Image
Order online, schedule your pickup and an employee will load up your car   Comment Amazon is officially  opening up  its AmazonFresh Pickup locations in Seattle to Prime members in the area. The service allows shoppers to buy items online and choose a time to collect them at a drive-in Amazon facility, where store employees will deliver them to the car. The service requires as little as 15 minutes advance notice if you are a paying AmazonFresh subscriber, which costs an extra $14.99 per month on top of your Prime subscription. Regular Prime customers have to wait at least two hours before the earliest pickup window becomes available. According to Seattle Times, the first time you visit one of the AmazonFresh Pickup locations, a concierge will enter your name and vehicle’s license plate number into Amazon’s systems. That way a license-plate reader will be able to automatically identify the customer during subsequent visits. The automatic license-plate
Read more