A brand new report reveals Android telephones outfitted with Qualcomm mobile modems outperforming the iPhone 16e with its personal Apple C1 modem. Sadly, the restricted nature of the exams, mixed with the truth that it was commissioned by Qualcomm, means we will’t be taught a lot from it.
The exams had been carried out by Mobile Insights, and you may learn the abstract right here or the complete report right here. The overall abstract of the outcomes is that the Android gadgets had obtain speeds round 35 p.c quicker than the iPhone 16e, and add speeds between 81 p.c and 91 p.c quicker.
That the report was paid for by Qualcomm, after all, makes it suspect, however there are different limitations value noting.
First, the report doesn’t tell us which Android telephones had been examined. It says one is “a 2025 flagship system powered by Snapdragon X80 5G Modem-RF System priced at $799” and the opposite is “a 2024 flagship system powered by Snapdragon X75 5G Modem-RF System priced at $619.” That narrows it down considerably, nevertheless it’s odd that the iPhone 16e is known as (the one system with an Apple C1 modem in any case) and the Android gadgets are saved considerably secret.
Second, the testing all came about in solely three places in a single small geographical space—the Astoria neighborhood in Queens, New York Metropolis. Even our personal testing, which we famous was fairly restricted, managed to check 5 places across the larger Sacramento space. Lastly, the examine solely used T-Cellular’s business SA 5G community. As with our personal testing, which came about solely on the Verizon community, taking a look at a single service (particularly solely in a single neighborhood) captures solely a really restricted expertise.
A extra in depth set of exams comes from Ookla, whose report again in March used information from many customers throughout the nation testing with its in style Speedtest app. That report captured the expertise on all three main carriers, and apparently, the hole between the iPhone 16 (utilizing a Qualcomm modem) and the iPhone 16e (with the Apple C1) was widest on, you guessed it, T-Cellular’s community.
So this check appears to be like barely suspect. Not solely is it paid for by Qualcomm, nevertheless it pits the $599 iPhone 16e towards unnamed Android telephones, in simply three places of a single neighborhood, on the service during which Qualcomm’s modems simply occur to outperform Apple’s by the widest margin. And it solely exams add and obtain speeds, not different points akin to stability when shifting inside and between cell areas, latency, or energy utilization. None of this implies the report is fake, nevertheless it provides the looks of cherry-picking exams to get the outcomes you need.
Finally, there’s nothing of observe right here. The C1 modem was by no means meant to outperform Qualcomm’s greatest modems, solely to supply a comparable expertise to mid-tier merchandise with good stability and decrease energy utilization. Apple’s future modems (C2 and C3, presumably) are anticipated to extend efficiency with every era, finally with the purpose of beating Qualcomm’s greatest choices in 2026 or 2027.
