Your phone’s internet speed depends on various factors, including your cellular carrier, internet package, and current network load.
But what about your phone? Can your phone model also affect your internet speed?
Here’s Whether Phone Model Affects Internet Speed:
The phone model affects both mobile and Wi-Fi internet speeds. For example, a 5G phone can provide faster internet than a 4G phone, and a Wi-Fi 6 phone can give speedier internet than a Wi-Fi 5 phone.
Does The Internet Speed Depend On Your Phone?
Your phone model can affect your cellular and Wi-Fi internet speeds in several ways.
Cellular And Wi-Fi Modems
Your phone’s cellular and Wi-Fi modems determine its internet speeds: 5G phones support faster mobile internet than 4G phones, and Wi-Fi 6 phones support speedier Wi-Fi internet than Wi-Fi 5 phones.
Each network technology can also have sub-speed categories: 4G LTE has Category 1 up to Category 20, with higher categories providing faster data rates.
For example, Google Pixel 3 has a Cat16 4G LTE modem that supports up to 1024 Mbps download and 75 Mbps upload speed, while Google Pixel 4 comes with a Cat18 4G LTE modem that supports up to 1200 Mbps download and 150 Mbps upload speed.
Build Materials And Design
Phones with metal bodies block radio signals more than plastic or glass ones. This is why metal-body phones have small plastic strips to allow radio signals.
So a phone with a metal body might struggle to get a decent signal and have slower internet speed in a place where a phone with a plastic or glass body has no issue.
In a metal-body phone, the placement of antenna strips can also affect internet speed; the phone will have poor signal reception and slower internet if it’s easy to cover the strips with your hand.
Can A High-End Phone Provide Faster Internet Speeds Than A Budget Phone?
High-end phones have better chipsets with faster modems than budget phones.
For example, Samsung Galaxy A10e, a budget phone released in 2019, only has an LTE Cat4 modem with a max download speed of 150 Mbps.
On the other hand, Google Pixel 4, a flagship phone released in the same year, has an LTE Cat18 modem with a max download speed of 1200 Mbps.
Even though both phones are 4G LTE, Pixel 4 will offer faster internet speeds if the cellular carrier supports such high data rates.
The same goes for the Wi-Fi internet speeds: a high-end phone with a faster Wi-Fi modem will offer faster internet speeds than a budget phone.
Does The Age Of Your Smartphone Affect The Internet Speed?
If your phone is a few years old, it will only have an older modem that only supports older network technologies. On the other hand, newer phones will have faster modems with the latest technologies.
For example, Google Pixel 2, released in 2017, only has an LTE Cat15 modem with an 800 Mbps peak download speed, while Pixel 4, released in 2019, has an LTE Cat18 modem with a 1200 Mbps peak download speed.
If your phone is a generation behind the newer phones, the internet speed gap will be higher: 5G phones will provide significantly faster data rates than older 4G phones.
Final Thoughts
Different phones have cellular and Wi-Fi modems of varying speeds, and phones with faster modems provide better internet speeds.
If you have an older phone, it might only provide a slower internet speed because it lacks support for newer network technologies.
