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The Smartphone Experience Shift from 4G to 5G

Posted: Mar 15, 2022

On March 8, 2022 Apple announced a new 5G version of the iPhone SE — its cheapest iPhone — that will replace an older 4G-only SE model, first released in 2020. Notably, Apple prioritized including 5G and the modern A15 chipset over other potential enhancements such as adding Face ID or multiple rear cameras.

Benchmarking the Global 5G Experience — September 2021

Posted: Sep 09, 2021

With the autumn smartphone upgrade cycle about to start, with the recent launch of new Samsung foldable models such as Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip3 and the new iPhone, as well as models from other brands, many mobile users will be considering purchasing their first 5G phone. Opensignal has again looked at the 5G experience to see how it compares globally and how 5G holds up against the older 4G mobile experience which will be used by most upgraders with 4G-only phones.

The European smartphone speed race: How Apple, OnePlus, Oppo, Samsung and Xiaomi compare

Posted: Jul 22, 2021

In this new analysis, we find that the overall speed experienced by 5G smartphones differs greatly by smartphone brand. However, across all brands we see that the overall speed for 5G devices is significantly higher compared with 4G smartphone models of the same brand. This increase highlights the importance of 5G technology to accelerate the mobile experience.

How to hasten US 3G switch-off to accelerate 5G

Posted: Dec 18, 2019

At the dawn of 5G, there are still a significant number of U.S. users on 3G networks that have never even connected to a 4G network. This creates an interesting challenge as U.S. carriers are hungry for more mid-band spectrum so they can more widely deploy 5G services. There is a scarcity of prime mid-band 5G spectrum in the U.S. as compared with other countries.

Latin American cities’ 4G Download Speeds vary significantly round-the-clock

Posted: May 13, 2019

Opensignal has analyzed 4G Download Speeds experienced by our users on smartphones across six of the largest cities in Latin America: Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Lima, Mexico City, Santiago, and São Paulo. We discovered that our users in São Paulo enjoyed the fastest speeds with an average 4G Download Speed score of 21.3 Mbps, marginally faster than Mexico City by 0.3 Mbps. Meanwhile, our users in Buenos Aires experienced the slowest speeds, with average 4G Download Speeds of 16.2 Mbps.