When the iPhone 14 Pro Max was released last fall, it took the top spot for the fastest download speed in multiple studies, beating rivals like Samsung’s Galaxy S22 smartphones. As it turns out, in a recent report, the iPhone 14 Pro Max lost its download speed crown to not just one, but two Android devices.
Ookla has released its latest mobile performance report comparing the major US carriers when it comes to download and upload speeds, consistency, availability and more.
Another interesting comparison in the test is how the most popular smartphones in the US stacked up in the fourth quarter for download/upload speeds and latency.
While the iPhone 14 Pro Max scored an average for speed with 147 Mbps download and 17 Mbps upload speeds in Q3, the tables have turned in a new Ookla study.
The fastest smartphones in the US by download speed
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 took first place with an average download speed of 147.24 Mbps, followed by Google’s Pixel 7 Pro with 137.11 Mbps.
In third place is iPhone 14 Pro Max with 133.84 and 14 Pro with 130.14 Mbps. Upload speeds and latency were very close, but the Pixel 7 Pro took the lead with 15.53 Mbps upload and 50 ms latency.
Another interesting result was Samsung smartphones, which were the overall leader with the fastest average download speed compared to all iPhones at about 7 Mbps.
9to5Mac’s Take:
The interesting part about the iPhone 14 Pro Max losing its crown for fastest download speed is that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 won with the same performance we saw from the 14 Pro Max in Q3.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max’s average download speed eventually dropped from 147 to 133 Mbps, allowing the Fold4 and Pixel 7 Pro to take the top and second spots.
Since we’ve seen the iPhone 14 Pro Max run at the same speed as these two Android smartphones, one possibility is that between Q3 and Q4, more 14 Pro Max smartphones ended up in customers’ hands in more areas with slower carrier coverage.
In other words, at launch, the share of iPhone 14 Pro Max users may have been higher in metro areas, which could have skewed download speeds in the third quarter before being lower in the fourth quarter.
In any case, all the flagship smartphones from Apple, Samsung and Google in Ookla’s test offer high download speeds, with average performance between 125 and 147 Mbps.
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