(Credit: Eric Zeman/PCMag)
After Apple launched the iPhone 16e last month, there was a lot of chatter about its lack of support for high-band 5G, or millimeter-wave, which can facilitate speeds of up to 10Gbps. But is that a deal-breaker, and does it mean the iPhone 16e offers slower speeds than its siblings? To find out, Ookla compared the Speedtest data of the iPhone 16e with the iPhone 16, which costs $200 more and runs a Qualcomm modem that supports mmWave signals.
Between March 1-12, Ookla collected Speedtest data from AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon users. The results, when categorized into three groups—fast, median, and lower download speeds—show that despite the 16e’s lack of support for mmWave signals, it doesn’t lag far behind.
While the iPhone 16 performed better than the 16e for users with access to faster download speeds, the 16e almost matched the iPhone 16 in the median range and beat it in the lower range.
(Credit: Ookla)When performance is broken down by carrier, the iPhone 16e outperforms the iPhone 16 on AT&T and Verizon, but the iPhone 16 leads on T-Mobile.
Numbers-wise, the iPhone 16e users experienced median download speeds of 140.77Mbps on Verizon, 226.90Mbps on AT&T, and 264.71Mbps on T-Mobile. The iPhone 16 users, on the other hand, had median download speeds of 124.4Mbps on Verizon, 146.6Mbps on AT&T, and 357.47Mbps on T-Mobile.
(Credit: Ookla)T-Mobile offered considerably faster speeds on both devices, and that’s probably because it “is the only US carrier to have a nationwide commercialized 5G standalone network (SA),” Ookla says. (Earlier this week, T-Mobile touted a new 5G download speed record.)
When it comes to upload speeds, the iPhone 16e trumped the iPhone 16 on all three networks. While iPhone 16e users experienced upload speeds of 14.63Mbps on AT&T, 14.91Mbps on T-Mobile, and 13.24Mbps on Verizon, iPhone 16 users saw 8.6Mbps, 14.15Mbps, and 8.72Mbps, respectively.
(Credit: Ookla)Even in our iPhone 16 versus 16e comparison tests, we found that the C1 modem on the 16e kept a voice call connected during a 20-minute drive and delivered some of the fastest download speeds we’ve seen on AT&T’s network.
The iPhone 16e is currently the only iPhone in the US without mmWave support, but Ookla expects future versions of the C1 modem to include it. Even without it, as their results suggest, the iPhone 16e holds up against the iPhone 16.
Disclosure: Ookla is owned by PCMag parent company, Ziff Davis.