iPhone 6+ with 802.11ac shows substantial speed improvements over iPhone 5s's 802.11n
iPhone Wi-Fi Speed Test: 802.11ac iPhone 6 Plus vs. 802.11n iPhone 5s [Video] — We've posted a new video test comparing the Wi-Fi speeds of the 802.11ac iPhone 6 Plus versus the 802.11n iPhone 5s.
Context & Ripple Effects
The iPhone 6 Plus launched into a review cycle where Apple's own boosters had already framed the new phones as better on every axis, including network speed, and independent labs had backed the performance claims with browser and GPU benchmark wins over rival flagships in late September 2014.
This video test fills in the one radio dimension those earlier pieces treated only in passing: with the 6 Plus shipping with 802.11ac against the iPhone 5s's 802.11n, iClarified's side-by-side gives the first concrete throughput picture of what that generational jump means on a real access point — and the story traveled widely the same day, picked up by MacRumors, CNET, TUAW, and Patently Apple.
First-order effects
- iPhone 6 Plus owners with 802.11ac routers see substantially faster real-world Wi-Fi transfers than iPhone 5s owners on the same network, making home-router capability the new bottleneck for older-device users.
- The test hands reviewers and upgraders a quantified reason beyond screen size to move from the 5s to the 6 generation.
Second-order effects
- Rival Android flagship makers face pressure to match 802.11ac support and publish their own throughput numbers, pushing Wi-Fi radio specs into the standard comparison table alongside SoC and display benchmarks.
- Consumer-router vendors gain a marketing hook, since an ac-capable phone makes an ac-only router upgrade visible to buyers who previously saw no benefit.
Third-order effects
- If each iPhone generation keeps jumping radio standards, wireless connectivity becomes a recurring upgrade driver in its own right — pulling carrier-independent refresh demand and forcing the broader device ecosystem to track Apple's radio cadence.
The trend: Smartphone differentiation is shifting from raw CPU benchmark wins toward radio-generation leaps, with Wi-Fi and LTE throughput becoming headline specs in their own right.