A new network performance study by Ookla indicates that Apple’s iPhone 17, powered by the company’s in-house N1 networking chip, recorded higher consistency scores and competitive download speeds compared with flagship Android phones using chips from Qualcomm, MediaTek and Broadcom.
According to Ookla’s analysis, which is based on crowdsourced Speedtest data, the N1 chip showed a near 40 per cent improvement over the Broadcom-based networking system in the previous iPhone 16 series. The chip integrates Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 support, marking Apple’s shift towards custom connectivity hardware.
Globally, Google’s Pixel 10 achieved the highest median download speed at 335.35 Mbps, marginally ahead of the iPhone 17’s 329.56 Mbps. In lower-performance conditions, the iPhone 17 recorded 56.08 Mbps, ahead of the Pixel 10’s 53.25 Mbps.
In North America, the iPhone 17 recorded speeds of up to 416.14 Mbps, the Pixel 10 Pro posted 411.21 Mbps, while Samsung’s Galaxy S25 reached 323.69 Mbps. The iPhone 17 also logged the highest 10th-percentile download speeds at 56.08 Mbps, indicating comparatively stable performance in weaker Wi-Fi 7 environments.
Ookla noted that the N1 chip’s current limitation to a 160 MHz channel width did not affect real-world speeds despite other Wi-Fi 7 devices offering 320 MHz support. For the 90th-percentile metric, which reflects the highest performance ranges, the iPhone 17 reached 976.39 Mbps in North America, ahead of the Pixel 10’s 932.19 Mbps and the Galaxy S25’s 815.19 Mbps.
The study reported that North America accounted for the highest proportion of Wi-Fi 7 users, making up 20.62 per cent of the sample. It was followed by Northeast Asia at 5.38 per cent, Europe at 4.95 per cent, Southeast Asia at 2.95 per cent and the Gulf region at 1.73 per cent. |
