Comparative 5G Performance Report: Android Smartphones vs. iPhone 16e

Commissioned by Qualcomm Technologies, Inc

Executive Summary

This report presents a comparative evaluation of 5G performance between the iPhone 16e, equipped with Apple’s first-generation C1 modem, and two Qualcomm-powered Android smartphones. Testing was conducted across a variety of real-world radio environments–near-, mid-, and far-cell within New York City connected to T-Mobile’s sub6 GHz Standalone (SA) network.

Across all RF scenarios, the Qualcomm-based Android devices consistently outperformed the iPhone 16e, revealing several key advantages:

• Tangible performance gains in both uplink and downlink throughput under all signal conditions
• Superior carrier aggregation capabilities, leveraging 4CC downlink and 2CC uplink carrier aggregation (ULCA) versus suspected 3CC downlink and no ULCA on the iPhone 16e
• Higher spectral efficiency and more consistent utilization of available bandwidth
• Performance gaps observed to be wider in sub-optimal RF conditions. This directly impacts user experience in typical use scenarios such as being deep indoors
• Greater platform maturity, with forwards compatibility for features like FDD+FDD ULCA

Average Throughput Advantage (3 Locations, NYC):

• Download speeds: Android devices were 34.3% to 35.2% faster
• Upload speeds: Android devices were 81.4% to 91.0% faster

These findings underscore the performance gap between iPhone 16e powered by Apple’s C1 modem and Android devices powered by Qualcomm’s X75/X80 platforms, particularly in more demanding RF conditions and high-load network environments. For users seeking consistent, high-throughput 5G performance, Qualcomm-powered devices currently hold a clear edge.

Key Highlights

Cellular insights conducted a performance report of 5G NR smartphones from two leading suppliers, powered by two different modem platforms. For this report, we included smartphones equipped with baseband chipsets from Qualcomm and Apple. Testing was performed on T-Mobile’s commercial sub-6 GHz Standalone (SA) 5G network in New York City, which utilizes a mix of low- and mid-band FDD and TDD spectrum. Devices tested:

• iPhone 16e powered by Apple’s first-generation C1 modem priced at $599
• Android A, a 2025 flagship device powered by Snapdragon X80 5G Modem-RF System priced at $799
• Android B, a 2024 flagship device powered by Snapdragon X75 5G Modem-RF System priced at $619

This report yielded several notable insights – some expected, others surprising. While all three devices delivered somewhat comparable 5G performance under idea, near-cell conditions, performance deltas became increasingly pronounced as signal conditions deteriorated. In particular, when the network shifted from TDD to FDD as the Primary Component Carrier (PCC) in poor RF environments, the iPhone 16e struggled to match Android performance on both downlink and uplink.

Due to lack of chipset-level information on iOS, we were limited to analyzing application-layer throughput for the iPhone, whereas Android allowed full chipset-level access. Even with this limitation, the performance difference between Android devices and the iPhone 16e was tangible and observable.

A special thanks to Qtrun Technologies for providing AirScreen software for chipset-level analysis and Qualcomm for providing access to the Umetrix Data Server (Spirent Communications).

‭Click here to download the report