Although Apple's iPhone 8 hasn't been announced yet, reports claim that there's already a possibility that it will have slower wireless speeds than Samsung's newly released Galaxy S8. The new iPhone may not support Gigabit LTE networks, which the Samsung Galaxy S8 does.
When it comes to smartphones, there are so many key areas that are significant to consumers. Design, software, battery life, price, and performance are all important factors, as is speed. Samsung's powerhouse smartphones, the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, are the alleged two fastest Android phones that have been launched to date. They used new 10nm octa-core processors, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 in the US and Samsung's Exynos 8895 for international countries. They also feature the most optimized version yet of the Samsung Experience, which formerly known as TouchWiz.
If Apple decides to skip out on Gigabit LTE, the iPhone 8 will hit the market with a major disadvantage when the company is trying to position the 10th iteration of its iPhone franchise as the most advanced smartphone yet. Samsung Galaxy S8 is just the first premium device to tap into the said technology. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S8 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 CPU that can use faster data rates on the 4G spectrum known as Gigabit LTE. Apparently, Apple uses its own CPU and a mix of modems from both Intel and Qualcomm.
As a source noted out, Apple utilizes modems built by both Qualcomm and Intel in its current iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models. Apple continues to utilize both suppliers but only one of the iPhone 8's modems - the Qualcomm model - will support Gigabit LTE. In that case, Apple may intentionally slow the Qualcomm model to match the performance of the Intel model, as it has reportedly done with the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.
It's still uncertain what Apple will do with the next iPhone. It could just switch back to just utilizing Qualcomm's modem or it will use the X16 in markets like the US where Gigabit LTE is coming on its way. More importantly, Carriers and vendors alike are both expected to start calling out Gigabit LTE as a very important feature, and Qualcomm expects as many as 10 phones to offer those speeds. It would be a great loss for Apple to be the only premium phone without it.
