Domestic 3rd Quarter 5G Download Speeds: Galaxy Ranks 1st to 3rd... iPhone 12 in 4th Place

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Eun-mo] A survey found that Samsung Electronics' Galaxy smartphones have faster download speeds than Apple's iPhone 12 in South Korea. However, this comparison excludes the iPhone 13, which was released this fall. The iPhone 13 ranked first in almost all countries included in the comparison.

According to Ookla, the operator of the internet speed measurement site 'Speedtest,' a survey of 5G download speeds for major domestic smartphones in the third quarter of this year showed that the Galaxy S21 Ultra was the fastest at 221.18 Mbps.

Following was the Galaxy S21 (215.1 Mbps) in second place, with last year's models Galaxy Note20 Ultra (199.91 Mbps) and iPhone 12 (193.34 Mbps) ranking third and fourth respectively. The iPhone 13 released this year was excluded from the comparison in South Korea due to a small sample size. In the LTE download speed survey, Galaxy models took the top four spots, including the Galaxy S9+ setting the highest record at 60.41 Mbps, surpassing the iPhone 11 in fifth place (56.96 Mbps).

In contrast, in other countries surveyed this time where the iPhone 13 was included, it ranked first in 5G download speed among phone models. Only in China did Huawei's Mate40 Pro (280.22 Mbps) narrowly beat the iPhone 13 (278.22 Mbps). In Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the iPhone 13 outpaced Android phones led by Galaxy models by a significant margin. In the United Arab Emirates, the iPhone 13's 5G download speed reached 485.59 Mbps, the highest recorded in this survey.

Meanwhile, the 5G download speeds of major domestic smartphones have steadily increased since the Galaxy S10 5G recorded 102.61 Mbps in 2019. The highest domestic 5G download speed recorded by the S21 Ultra in this survey (221.18 Mbps) was about 3.7 times the highest domestic LTE download speed recorded by the S9+ (60.41 Mbps). In South Korea, the iPhone 12's 5G download speed was higher than the latest iPhone 13's measurements in Canada, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Ookla evaluated that "Upgrading to 5G is worthwhile in Korea," adding, "There are also various high-performance devices for consumers to choose from."