A few week ago , we ran all over Ithiel Town liken upload and download speeds of the iPhone 16e withApple ’s fresh C1 modemagainst the iPhone 16 with Qualcomm ’s X71M. The final result were clear : Qualcomm was winning , hand - down .
At the time , we caution that this was just in one metropolitan area ( in several wide-ranging location ) on one bearer and that more thorough result would require try out all over the map on all major common carrier . Still , it was proficient than most of the data we look in the other reassessment , which often ran a individual test in a individual localization and concluded it was close enough .
Now , Ookla , the makers of the same Speedtest app we used , havepublished a reportusing real - world information on former iPhone 16e adoptive parent , compare it against the iPhone 16 . Across 12 Clarence Day ( March 1 - 12 ) , using datum from Speedtest user on all three major U.S. carriers , Ookla saw different results than our one - city , one - bearer test .
In light , according to Ookla ’s data , Apple ’s C1 modem can beat or match Qualcomm ’s X71 M most of the time , but there are some caveat worth noting .
Ookla
The tenth centile — users in the bottom 10 percent of performance results — really had abettermean download speed with Apple ’s C1 modem . That ’s the opposite ofour finding , where the C1 modem performed especially poorly in field where the connector was quite weak .
Users in the top 10 pct visualize importantly faster mean download speed with the iPhone 16 , likely due to its supporting of mmWave and 4x downlink newsboy assemblage . The overall results , the median user , were very nearly even . The upload speed results varied by carrier , with T - Mobile users showing similar carrying out between the iPhone 16e and iPhone 16 while AT&T or Verizon users see Apple ’s C1 pull forwards . Again , this differ from our experience using Verizon ’s internet .
It all just goes to show that cellular testing is messy and complicated . Every variable quantity makes a grown difference of opinion : location , carrier , weather , how busy the nearby cells are at the bit , whether the test is done indoors or not , and so much more . The best results come from performing the most trial , and in that paying attention , Ookla ’s report is likely the most precise performance standard we have so far .
It ’s also deserving mentioning that the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro do not have Qualcomm ’s ripe modems : the X71 M is deficient to the novel X80 and X85 . At the end of the day , Apple ’s C1 modem has deliver the goods where it matters most : It ’s neither faster nor slower enough to make iPhone 16e substance abuser comment on it , and true enough not to cause a stir . Apple swap out Qualcomm ’s modems for one of its own , and outside of the technical school pressing and a fistful of geeky enthusiasts , nobody discover .
