New Year is the perfect time to buy a new smartphone. Numerous sales of last year’s models prefer to replace the devices with newer and, above all, faster. How to choose them?
Internet forums and social networks are a culture of information about the latest telecommunications devices. Among them you can find many smartphone combinations that focus on the performance or quality of the photos taken. You can easily find summaries about the type of processor, the amount of RAM or camera settings. Unfortunately, the aspect of LTE modem parameters used in such comparisons is often overlooked, which affects the speed of data download via mobile networks. To meet your needs, we have compiled a list of smartphones with the fastest mobile internet in Poland.
What determines the speed of the Internet on a smartphone? The most important is the chipset that affects the LTE modem used, and especially its category. For example, the Samsung Galaxy S8 model sold in Poland has an Exynos 8895 chipset equipped with a 16-category LTE modem. The maximum download speed is 1 Gbit / s. Undoubtedly, you immediately thought that this type of equipment is insignificant in use, because in practice the speed is 20-30 Mbit / s. However, it is justified to have a smartphone with the highest category LTE modem, as it supports the improvement of the LTE-Advanced network with 256 GAM modulation, 4 × 4 MIMO mode and aggregation of multiple frequency bands used by Polish operators. You can read more about this in the introduction dedicated to 1 Gbit / s class smartphones.
Chipset is not everything
Why? For example, many manufacturers in China use the latest chipsets in their flagships, but this does not mean that mobile Internet works well in them. For example, this year’s OnePlus 5 with Snapdragon X16 modem and Snapdragon 835 chipset can work in Category 16 mode. However, OnePlus has decided to limit its capabilities to Category 12. three and resigned. With 4 × 4 MIMO. The second important aspect is the selection of the appropriate antennas by the manufacturer and their location. Therefore, we may encounter a situation where two smartphones will be equipped with the same LTE modem, but one of them will receive a stronger signal from the base station, which will turn into faster Internet.
Summary of user tests of the mobile application Speed Test
The Speed Test mobile app is available for owners of both Android and iOS devices. In both cases, we grouped the tests you performed on the device you were using and then averaged them. In 2017, you measured speed in Poland with smartphones 6.5 million times. Thanks to this, we are the largest Polish measurement platform. The rating includes only a thousand or more tested devices. In the list we can find all the most popular models of devices. The Samsung Galaxy S8 + showed the best results in both the mixed 3G / 4G rating and 4G LTE itself, followed by the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S7. The latter category is equipped with 9 LTE modems (450 Mbit / s). Apple used the same class of systems in the iPhone 7. Therefore, last year’s flagships of both manufacturers achieved a similar result.
Category: LTE
| Smartphone | Average download speed | Average download speed | Number of tests |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Galaxy S8 + | 28.97 Mbit / s | 8.02 Mbit / s | 1287 |
| Samsung Galaxy S8 | 28.12 Mbit / s | 8.35 Mbit / s | 2607 |
| Samsung Galaxy S7 | 27.55 Mbit / s | 7.13 Mbit / s | 3360 |
| iPhone 7 Plus | 26.81 Mbit / s | 7.86 Mbit / s | 1064 |
| Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge | 26.52 Mbit / s | 7.41 Mbit / s | 3224 |
| iPhone 7 | 26.42 Mbit / s | 8.55 Mbit / s | 3707 |
| LG G6 | 26.31 Mbit / s | 7.94 Mbit / s | 1225 |
| Samsung Galaxy Note 4 | 26.07 Mbit / s | 10.19 Mbit / s | 1516 |
| Huawei P10 | 26.01 Mbit / s | 8.06 Mbit / s | 1145 |
| iPhone 6S | 25.11 Mbit / s | 7.71 Mbit / s | 2724 |
| Samsung Galaxy A5 2017 | 24.31 Mbit / s | 6.39 Mbit / s | 2157 |
| Huawei P9 Lite 2017 | 24.25 Mbit / s | 7.00 Mbit / s | 2168 |
| Samsung Galaxy S6 | 22.77 Mbit / s | 7.69 Mbit / s | 2333 |
| iPhone 6 | 18.44 Mbit / s | 8.41 Mbit / s | 1794 |
| iPhone 5s | 17.95 Mbit / s | 8.08 Mbit / s | 1717 |
| iPhone SE | 17.44 Mbit / s | 7.89 Mbit / s | 1645 |
Category: 3G / LTE
| Smartphone | Average download speed | Average download speed | Number of tests |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Galaxy S8 + | 26.19 Mbit / s | 7.27 Mbit / s | 1471 |
| Samsung Galaxy S8 | 25.48 Mbit / s | 7.46 Mbit / s | 2890 |
| Samsung Galaxy S7 | 24.84 Mbit / s | 6.37 Mbit / s | 3902 |
| LG G6 | 24.12 Mbit / s | 7.30 Mbit / s | 1360 |
| iPhone 7 Plus | 24.02 Mbit / s | 7.09 Mbit / s | 1228 |
| Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge | 23.93 Mbit / s | 6.62 Mbit / s | 3699 |
| Huawei P10 | 23.69 Mbit / s | 7.26 Mbit / s | 1271 |
| iPhone 7 | 23.63 Mbit / s | 7.63 Mbit / s | 4276 |
| iPhone 6S | 22.54 Mbit / s | 6.90 Mbit / s | 3203 |
| Lenovo P2 | 22.34 Mbit / s | 8.47 Mbit / s | 1987 |
| Samsung Galaxy A5 2017 | 22.19 Mbit / s | 5.76 Mbit / s | 2417 |
| Huawei P9 Lite 2017 | 21.76 Mbit / s | 6.21 Mbit / s | 2541 |
| Samsung Galaxy Note 4 | 20.95 Mbit / s | 7.73 Mbit / s | 1723 |
| iPhone 6 | 16.83 Mbit / s | 7.47 Mbit / s | 2136 |
| iPhone 5s | 15.99 Mbit / s | 6.97 Mbit / s | 2087 |
| iPhone SE | 15.76 Mbit / s | 6.99 Mbit / s | 2042 |
Apple is a leader among smartphone manufacturers with high-speed Internet
The list of mobile device manufacturers includes only brands whose users have passed at least 5,000 tests. Apple’s decisive victory is primarily due to the use of only high-end LTE modems on iPhones; Unlike Samsung and other Android smartphones. True, the relatively cheap and slow iPhone SE is a Category 4 device (150 Mbit / s), currently not a popular model among iOS users. Most people use a faster iPhone 7. However, tests with smartphones with slower LTE modems are predominant among Android users.
Category: LTE
| Producer | Average download speed | Average download speed | Number of tests |
|---|---|---|---|
| alma | 22.76 Mbit / s | 8.35 Mbit / s | 16060 |
| Samsung | 20.84 Mbit / s | 8.18 Mbit / s | 58729 |
| Huawei | 19.93 Mbit / s | 8.42 Mbit / s | 26589 |
| Sony | 19.92 Mbit / s | 9.21 Mbit / s | 23024 |
| LG | 18.91 Mbit / s | 8.70 Mbit / s | 25388 |
| Xiaomi | 18.61 Mbit / s | 8.28 Mbit / s | 7164 |
| HTC | 17.57 Mbit / s | 8.40 Mbit / s | 10955 |
| Lenovo | 16.90 Mbit / s | 8.93 Mbit / s | 14688 |
Category: 3G / LTE
| Producer | Average download speed | Average download speed | Number of tests |
|---|---|---|---|
| alma | 20.18 Mbit / s | 7.32 Mbit / s | 19285 |
| Huawei | 17.51 Mbit / s | 7.24 Mbit / s | 32052 |
| Samsung | 17.04 Mbit / s | 6.50 Mbit / s | 79010 |
| Sony | 16.03 Mbit / s | 6.98 Mbit / s | 32053 |
| Xiaomi | 15.77 Mbit / s | 6.80 Mbit / s | 9585 |
| Motorola | 15.61 Mbit / s | 7.15 Mbit / s | 5140 |
| LG | 15.55 Mbit / s | 6.98 Mbit / s | 32439 |
| Lenovo | 15.28 Mbit / s | 7.60 Mbit / s | 18878 |
| HTC | 14.25 Mbit / s | 6.52 Mbit / s | 14837 |
What to look for when buying a smartphone?
You’ve probably read many guides, whose authors explain the differences between individual displays and the cameras used in smartphones. However, it is the results of performance criteria that will tell you which smartphone has the most computing power.
If your priority is to buy a device with the highest internet speed possible, look for information on the LTE modem category. The higher it is, the better for your smartphone. In practice, this does not mean that you will use all the features of the latest smartphone. Currently, most Polish operators combine up to 3 frequency bands and have base stations that support 256 GAM modulation. In this case, the optimal choice would be a smartphone with a 12-category LTE modem (600 Mbit / s). These are mainly the flagships of last year, when manufacturers for some reason decided not to use 1 Gbit / s class modems. Often, a phone with 9 categories of LTE device (450 Mbit / s) that combines 3 frequency bands but does not support 256 QAM modulation will be relatively good.
The maximum loading speed is 25% lower, but the fastest modulation is only used for short distances from the base station. Almost all of last year’s flagships will work here. Remember to pay attention to the supported frequencies when buying a smartphone. Unfortunately, some models from Chinese manufacturers do not support the European LTE 800 MHz band used by Polish operators to provide 4G network coverage within the country.
The terms and conditions for using the results of the above ranking are determined each time by SpeedTest.pl. It is forbidden to use the results of the above rating without the consent of SpeedTest.pl. Exceptions are the citation of the results on news portals.