The new iPhone 16e brought some surprises to the Apple phone range, including an all-new modem made in-house by the company, the Apple C1 instead of the Qualcomm modem used in the rest of Apple’s range. Now, a study shows that the iPhone 16e outperforms the more expensive iPhone 16, based on the C1’s performance.
Apple iPhone 16e
Ookla, a network intelligence company which you may know best for its highly useful Speedtest app, has monitored cellular performance data across different carriers and put the results into a study.
“Although it’s early in the adoption curve for the iPhone 16e, we analyzed the performance of the new device from March 1st through March 12th, and compared it to the performance of iPhone 16, which has a similar design and the same 6.1” screen. Both devices run on the same Apple-designed A18 SoC. However, it’s important to note that unlike the iPhone 16, the iPhone 16e does not support mmWave spectrum,” it says.
That last qualifier is important because it means that since it doesn’t support the much faster mmWave, that it can’t compete in part of the spectrum.
“Some of the performance differences that Speedtest data picked up between the iPhone 16e and the iPhone 16 may also be attributed to the fact that the C1 modem doesn’t have all the same capabilities that are featured in Qualcomm’s modems,” Ookla said.
Connection speeds compared on iPhone 16 and iPhone 16e.
However, it doesn’t mean that the C1 always lags behind. It depends which carrier you’re with. The iPhone 16e outperformed the iPhone 16 in terms of download speeds for two carriers, AT&T and Verizon, but not for T-Mobile.
“When we examine Speedtest Intelligence® data for the bottom 10th percentile (those with the lowest overall download speeds) of iPhone 16e vs. iPhone 16 users, we see that iPhone 16e users experienced better download speeds compared to iPhone 16 users across all three mobile providers,” the report goes on.
In other words, when your download speeds are not fast, they’re actually faster on the iPhone 16e than the iPhone 16, whichever carrier you’re using.
And there was one way that the iPhone 16e and its Apple C1 modem consistently outperformed the Qualcomm modem in the iPhone 16: upload speeds.
Ookla’s measurements of iPhone 16 and iPhone 16e upload speeds
“We saw iPhone 16e users on Verizon and AT&T experiencing higher upload speed performance than those using the iPhone 16. T-Mobile users, however, experienced just slightly higher upload speeds on the iPhone 16e compared to the iPhone 16. The gap was the biggest with AT&T iPhone 16e customers, who experienced median upload speeds of 14.63 Mbps, which is at least a 38% increase over AT&T iPhone 16 users who experienced median upload speeds of 8.60 Mbps,” Ookla said.
The Apple C1 modem also contributes to the iPhone 16e having exceptional battery life, beating the iPhone 16, for a start.
While the results here may not sway potential customers to the more affordable model outright, it’s interesting food for thought.
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