iPhone 15, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, and more got tested for 5G speed. Which one did the best?
Congrats, iPhone 15 owners. You have the fastest 5G phone, according to Ookla’s Speedtest rankings, which were freshly released this week. (Note: Mashable and Ookla belong to the same parent company, Ziff Davis.)
The new rankings tested various recent smartphones for how they performed under 5G networks across the U.S., but the most interesting findings involved the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, as they were the only phones on the list released in 2023.
With that in mind, here’s how it shook out, in terms of median download speeds as measured in megabits per second:
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iPhone 15 Pro Max: 285.02Mbps
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iPhone 15 Plus: 275.48Mbps
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iPhone 15 Pro: 268.99Mbps
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iPhone 15: 249.30Mbps
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Z Fold 5: 231.56Mbps
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Z Flip 5: 219.17Mbps
Some of these results are surprising and some of them are not. It seems fairly reasonable that the Pro Max, which is currently the highest-end iPhone available, would have the highest speeds, for instance. But the 15 Plus slightly outperforming the regular Pro is interesting. The same goes for all iPhones outperforming both Samsung foldables, both of which cost at least $ 1,000 after taxes.
But there’s also a more optimistic viewpoint for all of this: the median download speeds are all above 200Mbps in all cases. Four years ago, I found that 5G speeds could vary wildly from one block to another in New York City, with some areas clearing 400Mbps and others coming in below 100Mbps.
Obviously median is not the same as mean, but it should still be seen as somewhat encouraging that a good number of folks are getting results that were unthinkable from mobile networks just five years ago.