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32GB iPhone 7 significantly slower than more expensive versions, tests show

theguardian.com

21–30 of 51 posts

Re: 32GB iPhone 7 significantly slower than more expensive versions, tests show

#21
From the looks of it, my 7+ shipped with the Intel modem, and I can definitely see a drop in network strength when compared to my wife's iPhone 6. This is particularly worse when traveling, as the phone barely manages handoff properly.

I also noticed strange interference noise when using my earphones during my everyday commute. This seems to have been fixed by the recent update (10.0.3) though.

Re: 32GB iPhone 7 significantly slower than more expensive versions, tests show

#22
post #16

My suspicion is that it has to do with the test and the SLC cache. In the iPhone 7, most of the flash is TLC, but a portion of the flash is configured as much faster (for writes) SLC. The cache buffers a certain amount of writes, later transferring them to TLC. On a bigger drive this cache is bigger. So if the test fits into SLC cache on the bigger phone but falls out of it on the smaller phone, that (combined with l…

These tests churn GBs of data (necessary given how fast flash is), rendering the cache largely irrelevant. As I mentioned elsewhere, it is incredibly unlikely that parallelism plays a part (and has never been the case in prior devices, nor is it the case with the vast majority of SSDs. Anyone blindly buying larger for more parallelism is very likely to be disappointed). Different vendors make their memory solutions, and there are huge variations in options. We've seen this across a single model of a set size when two different vendors provide the storage.

In the end it really won't make a difference for real world use.

Re: 32GB iPhone 7 significantly slower than more expensive versions, tests show

#23
post #21

From the looks of it, my 7+ shipped with the Intel modem, and I can definitely see a drop in network strength when compared to my wife's iPhone 6. This is particularly worse when traveling, as the phone barely manages handoff properly. I also noticed strange interference noise when using my earphones during my everyday commute. This seems to have been fixed by the recent update (10.0.3) though.

That's crazy! I noticed this when I got the iPhone 6+. When I'm on the train I have to put it in airplane mode and take it back out for it to find the nearest tower sometimes. I thought this was just a power saving technique by Apple (maybe if it doesn't poll as much it doesn't use as much battery?) but it's obnoxious as hell if you're a commuter.

Re: 32GB iPhone 7 significantly slower than more expensive versions, tests show

#24
post #21

From the looks of it, my 7+ shipped with the Intel modem, and I can definitely see a drop in network strength when compared to my wife's iPhone 6. This is particularly worse when traveling, as the phone barely manages handoff properly. I also noticed strange interference noise when using my earphones during my everyday commute. This seems to have been fixed by the recent update (10.0.3) though.

[deleted]

Re: 32GB iPhone 7 significantly slower than more expensive versions, tests show

#26
post #21

From the looks of it, my 7+ shipped with the Intel modem, and I can definitely see a drop in network strength when compared to my wife's iPhone 6. This is particularly worse when traveling, as the phone barely manages handoff properly. I also noticed strange interference noise when using my earphones during my everyday commute. This seems to have been fixed by the recent update (10.0.3) though.

I'm curious how you can tell and if you bought a UK/EU or US version?

Re: 32GB iPhone 7 significantly slower than more expensive versions, tests show

#28
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this really depends on how long you are expecting to use your phone. Presently the iPhone 7 feels unnecessarily fast, but in 2-4 years when more data is consumed and operating systems are more taxing, I may care more about those difference.

"unnecessarily fast" I'm curious what you mean by this. No snark, genuinely curious.

Perhaps he means that the speed difference between the 7 and the 6 is almost unnoticeable, because everything that he does was near instant before?

That is basically my experience with modern Android phones at this point, and they aren't even as fast as the iPhone.

Re: 32GB iPhone 7 significantly slower than more expensive versions, tests show

#29

More troublesome than the slower SSD speeds is the lower quality Intel Modem compared with the Qualcomm Modem -- at least in large cities where there are large buildings that block signal. Meanwhile, the Samsung S7 has the Qualcomm Modem (MDM 9645M) with 4 antennas that allow for 4x4 MIMO, 256 QAM DL, EVS (Enhanced voice services). On the Samsung phone the 4x4 MIMO is now turned on as is the EVS (Ultra HD voice), the…

The Verizon/Sprint version has the Qualcomm modem. Are you saying that even with Qualcomm there's a noticeable difference between the iPhone and the S7?

Re: 32GB iPhone 7 significantly slower than more expensive versions, tests show

#30
post #21

From the looks of it, my 7+ shipped with the Intel modem, and I can definitely see a drop in network strength when compared to my wife's iPhone 6. This is particularly worse when traveling, as the phone barely manages handoff properly. I also noticed strange interference noise when using my earphones during my everyday commute. This seems to have been fixed by the recent update (10.0.3) though.

The moment I heard that modems were different between service provider models, I suspected that trouble like this may arise from them more band-restricted model of the two. It's one of the reasons I waited for the SIM-free/international model to become available before buying.

I think band/antenna differences between models should be much, much more visible. Right now this info can only be found on the tech specs page of Apple's iPhone site, but it really should be prominently visible on one of the feature pages too. Otherwise you're going to have a bunch of AT&T/Sprint subscribers being unpleasantly surprised when their $700+ "unlocked" flagship phone is almost useless overseas.

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