According to speed test service Ookla, Apple's iPhone X on average has downloaded data at 29.7 Mbps, well behind Samsung's Galaxy S9 at 38.9 Mbps
- Loading speeds have become a key selling point for Samsung — Qualcomm says its modems produce faster connections for phones
Context & Ripple Effects
This 2018 Ookla snapshot is the opening frame of a measurement fight that keeps repeating: the iPhone X averages 29.7 Mbps against the Galaxy S9's 38.9 Mbps, and Qualcomm — whose modems sit in Samsung's flagship — is explicitly arguing its silicon produces faster connections. That lands just as Intel fields its XMM 7560 LTE modem with CDMA support, part of the alternative supply Apple was drawing on.
The gap proves structural rather than incidental. Three years later the [[a:964191|iPhone 12 lineup still trailed 25 Android phones in 5G download speeds, with Samsung holding 60% of the top performers]], and by 2025 Ookla found AT&T and Verizon users posting higher median speeds on the iPhone 16e's in-house C1 modem than on the iPhone 16 — making modem sourcing, not radios alone, the through-line of the story.
First-order effects
- Samsung gains a quantified selling point over Apple at the carrier counter, with page-loading speed elevated into a headline feature for the Galaxy S9.
- Qualcomm's claim that its modems deliver faster connections puts Apple's modem sourcing decisions under public scrutiny at the moment Intel is positioning itself as the second LTE supplier.
Second-order effects
- A visible benchmark deficit raises the cost of Apple's multi-supplier modem strategy and pushes it toward owning modem design outright — the path the corpus shows culminating in the C1 modem inside the iPhone 16e.
- Speed-test firms like Ookla become recurring arbiters whose per-device rankings are weaponized in marketing by both camps, giving independent measurements outsized weight in the Apple-Samsung rivalry.
Third-order effects
- Cellular throughput hardens into a durable differentiation axis where Samsung flagships lead across generations — from the S9 here to the Galaxy S21 topping Ookla's 2021 5G rankings — forcing Apple to treat modem silicon as strategic rather than commodity.
- If the pattern holds, device-level speed benchmarks become a standing input to carrier and consumer purchasing decisions, entrenching testers like Ookla as permanent referees in platform competition.
The trend: Download-speed benchmarks keep showing iPhones trailing Samsung's flagships from the LTE era into 5G, turning modem sourcing into a decade-long competitive liability that Apple only began closing with its own silicon.