iPhone 7 Qualcomm LTE Modem Outperforms Intel LTE Modem by Significant Margin

[lothar]

So we've had Antennagate, Batterygate, Scruffgate, Chipgate...and now Modemgate. The guy that used to create these types of threads before, I haven't seen him in a while. Some of these ***gate issues were legitimate, others ranged from much ado about nothing to just downright ridiculous.

Antennagate: Everyone knows this, if not search Google.

Batterygate: I think there was a thread about this here. Do a search. Much ado about nothing.

Scruffgate: I think there was a thread about this here. Do a search. Much ado about nothing.

Chipgate: Samsung(14nm) vs TSMC(16nm) chip iPhone. This was a big issue from last year to the point that Apple banned apps from the App store that helped users identify whether an iPhone had a Samsung or TSMC chip because people were returning their iPhones to get new ones because despite Samsung's claim to be fabricated on cutting edge 14nm node, the 16nm TSMC chip had superior electrical performance which translated to better battery life. I know an engineer that personally returned his iPhone 3 times last year to ensure he got one that had a TSMC built chip.

Modemgate:

Intel baseband modem = Cat 10(450Mbps), 2015 technology, 28nm fabrication, use more battery.
Qualcomm baseband modem = Cat 12(600Mbps), 2016 technology, 14nm fabrication, use less battery.

Apple won't be able to prevent this though since an app isn't required to figure out anything.
Qualcomm (A1660/A1661) v. Intel (A1778/A1784) iPhone 7/7 Plus
Verizon/Sprint version uses a Qualcomm LTE Modem.
AT&T/T-Mobile version uses an Intel LTE Modem.
It's likely that most of the world like Canada and Europe (with the exception of places like Japan, China, and others where CDMA tech is prominent) will be getting the version with an Intel Modem.

Moral of the story: If you live in the US and are buying an Unlocked iPhone and want the best performance, get the Verizon version. And be sure to not get the 32GB version either.

Sources:
http://cellularinsights.com/iphone7/
http://forums.macrumors.com/threads...ntel-lte-modem-by-significant-margin.2008151/

 

[Oyeve]

Bah, I got the VZW ip7 128gb version. Its somewhere in my bag. I only got it because my job offered it to me (well, I control the account) and I use it to troubleshoot my remote users. I personally couldn't care less about any of its potential issues as I rarely even touch it. As long as it works and doesn't blow up. On the other hand, my personal TMO S7 edge is twice as fast as the iphone 7 on data connection. VZW IMO always sucks in NYC. My LGV20 comes in on monday and its VZW but I plan on putting in my TMO sim. I'll test its cellular connectivity with both.

 

[Commodus]

I see it as a non-issue, since you're unlikely to be in a situation where the modem is a make-or-break difference in your ability to connect. My iPhone 7 with an Intel modem has been fine so far, including in areas I know have patchy cell coverage.

 

[Kazukian]

Mine has been fine as well.

 

[linkgoron]

I really dislike that manufacturers create the "same" device with sometimes significantly different characteristics. This isn't only about Apple (modem or 14nm/16nm A9), the same goes for Samsung with Exynos and Snapdragon Galaxies.

 

[lothar]

I see it as a non-issue, since you're unlikely to be in a situation where the modem is a make-or-break difference in your ability to connect. My iPhone 7 with an Intel modem has been fine so far, including in areas I know have patchy cell coverage.

Mine has been fine as well.

What are your reception like? Bars and dBm numbers?

Keep in mind that if you're getting 3-4 bars of LTE, there won't be any noticeable difference between the Intel and Qualcomm modem.
If you have 1-2 bars of LTE at some rural area or your work place is in a glass house where you only get 1 bar of LTE, I expect there to be a noticeable difference between the Qualcomm and Intel modem. The difference seems to become noticeable when the reception is -110 dBm or worse which can be seen in all the charts.

 

[Commodus]

What are your reception like? Bars and dBm numbers?

Keep in mind that if you're getting 3-4 bars of LTE, there won't be any noticeable difference between the Intel and Qualcomm modem.
If you have 1-2 bars of LTE at some rural area or your work place is in a glass house where you only get 1 bar of LTE, I expect there to be a noticeable difference between the Qualcomm and Intel modem. The difference seems to become noticeable when the reception is -110 dBm or worse which can be seen in all the charts.

No dBm, but there are areas where I'll get 1-2 bars of LTE or drop to 3G.

 

[lothar]

Sample comments from people complaining on MacRumors about their Intel modem iPhone. To be fair, there are others that posted that they don't have any problems but most of those people have 3-5 bars of LTE if you look at the picture of their speed test results from their notification bar. When you have only 1-2 bars of LTE, the difference between the Qualcomm modem and the Intel modem can be as much as 30%.

So much for that...first it was dropping LTE signal all over the place and now that the latest patch "fixes" it, I can't get LTE speeds of over 10Mbps when I used to get 20+ on my iP6+

I have the Intel modem. Maybe I have a clunker, but speeds are way worse in real world use. Almost as bad as bad 3G when I have LTE on both. Side by side using the same SIM card, I'm lucky to get 1mbps up and down on the 7. I get 12 down and 1 up on my 6+ which is good enough.

Phone is going back, if the replacement doesn't improve, I'm keeping my 6+.

I can tell the difference compre to my 6S+ and my 7+. On my way to work (same route on the train) I never use to get significant drops of LTE at all for the past year using my 6S+. Same route now with my 7+ I often get messages that there is no cell connection or goes down to 4G too often. I'm certainly affect and it sucks. I hope they can improve on the firmware or something cause at this time Intel sucks.

I was complaining about my LTE speeds from day one (http://forums.macrumors.com/threads...-data-speeds-in-nyc-post-your-speeds.2000077/), so I didn't need this benchmark to tell me that something was off with my 7+ compared to my 6+.

Yes, I know, AT&T is part of the problem as well.

I think that my $900 phone should have the best modem that money can buy. Penny pinching doesn't belong in a flagship phone, especially not at the cost of performance.

This is absolutely not a non-issue. I get no service on my AT&T whatsoever in grocery stores where I used to get weak service on my old iPhones. Last night I was at a casino I've been to before and had no service, yet the last time I was at that casino I played Pokémon GO on my iPhone 6 as I walked around. I remember service being very slow, with that game freezing a few times, but I couldn't even receive a text all night last night.

I had no service in my house until I updated to the 10.1 beta. Seems my service no longer drops outside, but I lose it in Target, Wal-Mart, Publix grocery store and other large buildings like the casino.

I wonder if this is something I could swap out for? I've got AppleCare.

A better question may be... why the heck does AT&T have such low signal in one of the biggest casinos in the world? Hard Rock Tampa. And why is their signal low all around where I live, which is 15 minutes from Walt Disney World and filled with vacation rentals for tourists?

I can see cell towers EVERYwhere, yet I've always got one dot.

Now that I've used the iPhone 7 Plus for a week. I can tell the signal on T-Mobile is WORSE than my iPhone 6S Plus. I go through the same route on train every morning. With my iPhone 6S Plus I never had problems connecting to LTE. With the new iPhone 7 Plus I can completely have problems throughout my route. It isn't one day of the week this week but every single day since I got my iPhone. My iPhone has the Apple leather case only. In conclusion the Intel part sucks big time. Feel ripped off. Too bad I sent my iPhone 6s Plus back to T-Mobile for exchange.

I went from a 6s to a 7 with T-mo and traded the 6s in. Now my LTE struggles to get above 5 at work where I had 30 before. If i go to the file room I drop to 4G but its faster than the LTE is. No one else here has trouble. I don't know what to do.

I place a very high priority on reception / signal quality so I decided to run some tests on two identical 128gb iPhone 7's to see which is better in my environment (planning to return whichever one is worse). One Verizon / qualcomm model purchased from Apple store (model a1660), and another purchased from an ATT store with the intel modem (a1778). The phones are set up identically as new, and both have 10.0.2. Reset network settings on both phones and used the speed test app for LTE speed tests. All tests run on AT&T's network. I only kept tests where the speed test app connected to the same server/location. I also did a field test prior to each run. Averages below are based on 10 total runs.

Bottom line is I found a significant difference - average downloads of 22 vs 13 mbps down and 3 vs 1 mbps upload speed (qualcomm was the winner). Also lots of variability for the intel modem during the tests, where the qualcomm modem was more steady through each speed test run. And did a bunch of simultaneous page loads of web pages (on LTE). There was little difference in page load speeds.....maybe a very slight advantage to qualcomm. Lastly, after running all these tests I compared battery life. I also set the phones next to each other and did a 2 hour call between them to see if an LTE call used more battery on one of the models. I was careful to make sure the phones were set and charged identically, and ran the same amount of tests / screen brightness on each phone. Battery life at the end of the tests was as follows: Qualcomm - 75% remaining. Intel - 61% remaining. I did not calibrate both batteries beforehand FWIW.

Attached is a txt file with my test data. Hope this is useful to people. I fully realize this is just one data point with only two phones, and I understand there's a need for a more scientific and comprehensive test with many more phones and locations to know for sure. But I thought I'd share what I found in case anyone finds it useful since I rarely if ever contribute to these forums, but frequently get useful info from others' posts.

http://forums.macrumors.com/threads...ntel-lte-modem-by-significant-margin.2008151/

Until I see a review done by Anandtech, I think the test conducted by Cellularinsights is the most credible because a lot of people simply running tests with the only iPhone they bought has too many variables such as carrier, geographic location, reception, and all that jazz which can affect results. I'm also interested in knowing the battery performance between the Intel and Qualcomm modem.
http://cellularinsights.com/iphone7/

 

[WelshBloke]

I am shocked that Qualcomm might have a better radio than Intel!

Shocked I tell you!

 

[lothar]

I am shocked that Qualcomm might have a better radio than Intel!

Shocked I tell you!

It's not like Intel doesn't have experience building radios.
Infineon(which was acquired by Intel) built the radios for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4.

That said, experience clearly doesn't seem to matter much.
The biggest news in this report is Samsung's Shannon modem. It was only about 2-3 years ago that Samsung decided to start building their own modems and they seem to already outperform their Intel/Infineon and Qualcomm counterparts on all levels.

My signal strength is ranging between -111 and -120 dBM on T-Mobile right now at home, so Intel's performance probably won't be good enough for me if I had an iPhone 7.

 

[dawheat]

It's not like Intel doesn't have experience building radios.
Infineon(which was acquired by Intel) built the radios for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4.

That said, experience clearly doesn't seem to matter much.
The biggest news in this report is Samsung's Shannon modem. It was only about 2-3 years ago that Samsung decided to start building their own modems and they seem to already outperform their Intel/Infineon and Qualcomm counterparts on all levels.

My signal strength is ranging between -111 and -120 dBM on T-Mobile right now at home, so Intel's performance probably won't be good enough for me if I had an iPhone 7.

Interesting catch on the Shannon modem - I thought the Note 5's overall reception wasn't as good as my wife's iPhone 6S at the time, but it looks like the Exynos versions of the S7 have more than caught up.

That honestly removes the last reason I would have preferred a S820 version vs. the Exynos 8890 - I'll take noticeably better battery life at mostly equal performance. Better connectivity would just be icing. An extra 10% battery life on my S7 Edge would make it perfect for my usage.

 

[dark zero]

Seems that every version of iPhone is not free of getting some controversy... and now with the Modem is not that good after all... Intel is losing reputation like that.

 

[Thope]

Seems that every version of iPhone is not free of getting some controversy... and now with the Modem is not that good after all... Intel is losing reputation like that.

what was the controversy with 6S

 

[linkgoron]

what was the controversy with 6S

Two different A9 versions (TSMC and Samsung).

https://9to5mac.com/2015/10/08/tsmc-iphone-6s-samsung-chipgate/
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/10/samsung-vs-tsmc-comparing-the-battery-life-of-two-apple-a9s/

 

[Thope]

Ah, yes. forgot about that tidbit.

5S?

 

[Dannar26]

I went with an iPhone 7 two weeks ago. Thought I was safe getting a phone from AT&T because iPhones don't have all the poorly coded bloat of carrier branded androids.

Wrong.

Thanks again AT&T.

For what it's worth, I have not noticed any issues. The overall experience is good, and light years ahead of my crap LG V10. I have not done any speed or comparison tests though.

Sucks that I got a phone with fewer carrier options because I got it from AT&T. This will likely hurt the resale value down the road.

 

[Eug]

I have an Intel modem in my unlocked Canadian iPhone 7 Plus.

In good signal areas it does well. In the depths of my workplace voice is OK but it often loses data. However I had the same problem on my 5S and I haven't tested the Qualcomm iPhone 7 Plus so I don't know if it would better in the same spots.

FWIW, I'm currently roaming in New Orleans and I only ever connect to AT&T. However, I don't know if that's because of the roaming agreement, the distribution of the tower coverage, or if it's because of the Intel modem. Works fine though. I was FaceTiming my kids while walking around the French Quarter and it worked fine.

 

[Commodus]

I went with an iPhone 7 two weeks ago. Thought I was safe getting a phone from AT&T because iPhones don't have all the poorly coded bloat of carrier branded androids.

Wrong.

Thanks again AT&T.

For what it's worth, I have not noticed any issues. The overall experience is good, and light years ahead of my crap LG V10. I have not done any speed or comparison tests though.

Sucks that I got a phone with fewer carrier options because I got it from AT&T. This will likely hurt the resale value down the road.

Well, you're free of bloat software... you're not free of carrier-specific policies and features. Either way, it's the reason why I really, really prefer to buy unlocked devices no matter the platform -- you get the phone you intended to buy, not a carrier's interpretation of it.

 

[Kazukian]

I live in a fringe reception area, similar reception as my previous phones, don't notice a difference at all.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Ah, yes. forgot about that tidbit.

5S?

Less effective RAM than the iPhone 5.

 

[Dannar26]

Well, you're free of bloat software... you're not free of carrier-specific policies and features. Either way, it's the reason why I really, really prefer to buy unlocked devices no matter the platform -- you get the phone you intended to buy, not a carrier's interpretation of it.

This is very true. It always seems financially worth it to go with AT&T, at least for me. I wasn't pay the bill previously, so it didn't make sense to go with a $700 out of pocket expense. This go around, AT&T gave me $140 for my LG V10. I doubt I would have been able to sell it otherwise...so I stuck with them. Just thought I would be ok in this instance, at least software wise.

Why would AT&T accept an inferior model? Kinda hurts them, doesn't it?

 

[ControlD]

Why would AT&T accept an inferior model? Kinda hurts them, doesn't it?

Probably 1% of the people out there even know there is an "inferior" model existing. To the rest, an iPhone 7 is just an iPhone 7.

 

[Eug]

So I'm thinking the inferior modem does indeed make a real world difference. I am on the bus on the way back from my swamp tour in rural Louisiana, roaming on my Canadian Intel modem iPhone. At the stop for the bus home, I either had no signal on AT&T or else signal with no data support at all. However, despite having signal I tried multiple voice calls and they all failed. Very occasionally the 3G or LTE symbol would come on but I could never access anything on the internet.

When the signal disappeared, the roaming switched to T-Mobile and with that I could make voice calls but had no data. And not even SMS would work. Call clarity was good though actually.

Meanwhile there were multiple people around me on 6-series iPhones on Cricket or AT&T that were reading articles from the internet just fine, about their new Trump overlord. If I understand it correctly, Cricket is AT&T.

tl;dr:

iPhone 7 Plus with AT&T in boonies = no service
iPhone 6/6s Plus with AT&T in boonies = can surf the net

 

[VashHT]

I wonder what the US unlocked phones from Apple use, I'm guessing it's the Qualcomm modem since they need to be compatible with all 4 US carriers. AFAIK you can't buy a specific carrier's version unless you're actually on the network, they ask you for your account info when you try to buy it (on the website at least).

 

[Dannar26]

Returned mine.

Target has a black Friday deal coming up. According to the model number the rep gave me, and the explanation of how he issues the phones out, it sounds like you'll get the Qualcomm modem for an AT&T purchase. He claimed that he only has one version of each size/color, and the phone can be locked to any of the three carriers they support (VZW, AT&T, Sprint). This tells me it has the Qualcomm modem - the intel version is GSM only. Also, the model number came up as the Verizon version according to my Googling.

You also get a $250 gift card to Target. Not bad.