Last fall when iPhone 14 Pro Max launched, it took the top spot for the fastest download speeds in multiple studies beating out competitors like Samsung’s Galaxy S22 smartphones. As it turns out, in the latest report, the iPhone 14 Pro Max has lost its download speed crown to not just one but two Android devices.
Ookla published its latest mobile performance report comparing the major US carriers when it comes to download and upload speeds, consistency, availability, and more.
Another interesting comparison in the test is a look at how the most popular smartphones in the US stacked up in Q4 for download/upload speed and latency.
While iPhone 14 Pro Max earned the crown for speed in Q3 with a median of 147 Mbps download speed and 17 Mbps upload speed, the tables have turned in Ookla’s new study.
Fastest smartphones in the US by download speed
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 earned the top spot with 147.24 Mbps median download speed with Google’s Pixel 7 Pro coming in second at 137.11 Mbps.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max came in third with 133.84 and the 14 Pro logged 130.14 Mbps. Upload speeds and latency were all very close but the Pixel 7 Pro led with 15.53 Mbps for upload and 50 ms latency.
Another interesting result was Samsung smartphones taking the overall lead for fastest median download speeds compared to all iPhones by about 7 Mbps.
9to5Mac’s Take
The interesting part about iPhone 14 Pro Max losing its crown for the fastest download speed is that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 won with the same performance that we saw from the 14 Pro Max in Q3.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max’s median download speed ended up dropping from 147 to 133 Mbps which allowed the Fold4 and Pixel 7 Pro to grab spots one and two.
Since we’ve seen the iPhone 14 Pro Max perform at speeds as high as these two Android smartphones, one possibility is that between Q3 and Q4, more 14 Pro Max smartphones made it into the hands of customers in more areas with slower carrier coverage.
Said another way, at launch, the proportion of iPhone 14 Pro Max users may have been higher in metro areas which could have skewed download speeds higher for Q3 before settling lower in Q4.
In any case, all of the top smartphones between Apple, Samsung, and Google are offering strong download speeds with median performance between 125 and 147 Mbps in Ookla’s test.
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