The publisher just completed its 29th 5G benchmark study. For this endeavour the publisher collaborated with Accuver Americas and Spirent Communications to conduct an independent benchmark study of several 5G smartphones operating in mid-band 5G spectrum and representing chipsets from MediaTek, Qualcomm, and Samsung.
Highlights of the Report include the following:
Acknowledgements
This study was conducted in collaboration with Accuver Americas (XCAL-M, XCAL-Solo and XCAP) and Spirent Communications (Umetrix Data). The publisher is responsible for the data collection and all analysis and commentary provided in this report.
Methodology
Testing took place on the T-Mobile network (Band n41) in the suburbs of Minneapolis-Saint Paul, MN. The network is comprised of 140 MHz of Band n41 spectrum (100 MHz + 40 MHz) as well as 5G in Band n71 and the requisite LTE spectrum - primarily Band 66 and Band 2 serving as the anchor cell. The smartphones were tested in pairs with the Galaxy S22 serving as the reference smartphone used to evaluate performance of the other smartphones in the mix.
The Scope
The publisher used the Galaxy S22, Galaxy S20 Ultra, iPhone 13, Google PIxel 6a, Galaxy A13, and Motorola edge (2022) smartphones. These smartphones represent 5G chipsets from MediaTek, Qualcomm and Samsung. Given some limitations in logging detailed chipset data, the publisher included a mix of physical layer and application layer results in our analysis
A New Sheriff in Town
Based on analysis of the results, the publisher declared the iPhone 13 as the "unofficial" top performing 5G smartphone of the group. The publisher includes the "unofficial" disclaimer because the analysis was limited to application layer throughput with this phone since they weren't able to log chipset data. Given the network pushed most of the traffic to Band n41 on the S22, the publisher assumes it behaved the same way with the iPhone, meaning potential differences in LTE performance between the two phones wouldn't explain the overall results observed.
LTE is becoming less relevant on the T-Mobile network
In addition to 5G Band n41 carrying the super-majority of the total traffic, the 5G network is quickly moving to the standalone (SA) network architecture as the default architecture, even with Band n41. This situation means LTE is becoming inconsequential, especially for those smartphones that support SA mode in Band n41.
Table of Contents
1.0 Executive Summary
2.0 Key Observations
3.0 Band n41 RF Performance-Related Results
3.1 Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S20 Ultra
3.2 Galaxy S20 Ultra and Galaxy A13
3.3 Galaxy S22 and iPhone 13
3.4 Galaxy S22 and Google Pixel 6a
3.5 Galaxy S22 and Motorola edge 2022
4.0 Test Methodology
5.0 Final Thoughts
List of Tables and Figures
Table 1. Smartphones Under Test
Figure 1. Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S20 Ultra PDSCH Throughput
Figure 2. Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S20 Ultra PDSCH Resource Block Allocations - Band n41 P Cell Only
Figure 3. Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S20 Ultra PDSCH RB Normalized Throughput - Band n41 P Cell Only14
Figure 4. Drive Route - Galaxy S2214
Figure 5. Drive Route - Galaxy S20 Ultra
Figure 6. Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S20 Ultra LTE Band Usage Concurrent with Band n41 5G Usage
Figure 7. Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S20 Ultra LTE Band Usage Concurrent with Band n71 5G Usage
Figure 8. Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S20 Ultra 256QAM Usage Versus SINR
Figure 9. Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S20 Ultra 256QAM Usage Versus CQI
Figure 10. Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S20 Ultra CQI Versus SINR
Figure 11. Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G + LTE MIMO Layer Count18
Figure 12. Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G + LTE MIMO Layer Distribution
Figure 13. Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G MIMO Layer Distribution
Figure 14. Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S20 Ultra MCS Allocations Versus CQI
Figure 15. Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S20 Ultra Band n41 MIMO Rank Versus CQI
Figure 16. Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S20 Ultra RB Normalized 5G Throughput Versus CQI
Figure 17. Drive Route
Figure 18. Galaxy S20 Ultra and Galaxy A13 PDSCH Throughput
Figure 19. Galaxy S20 Ultra and Galaxy A13 PDSCH Resource Block Allocations
Figure 20. Galaxy S20 Ultra and Galaxy A13 PDSCH RB Normalized Throughput
Figure 21. Galaxy S20 Ultra and Galaxy A13 PDSCH RB Normalized BLER Adjusted Throughput
Figure 22. Galaxy S20 Ultra and Galaxy A13 LTE Band Usage Concurrent with Band n41 5G Usage
Figure 23. Galaxy S20 Ultra and Galaxy A13 BLER Versus MCS
Figure 24. Galaxy S20 Ultra and Galaxy A13 BLER Versus CQI
Figure 25. Galaxy S20 Ultra and Galaxy A13 RB Normalized 5G Band n41 Throughput Versus CQI
Figure 26. Galaxy S20 Ultra and Galaxy A13 Distribution of CQI
Figure 27. Galaxy S20 Ultra and Galaxy A13 256QAM Usage Versus CQI
Figure 28. Galaxy S20 Ultra and Galaxy A13 MCS Versus CQI
Figure 29. Galaxy S20 Ultra and Galaxy A13 MIMO Rank Versus CQI
Figure 30. Galaxy S20 Ultra and Galaxy A13 5G + LTE MIMO Layer Count
Figure 31. Galaxy S20 Ultra and Galaxy A13 + LTE MIMO Layer Distribution
Figure 32. Galaxy S20 Ultra and Galaxy A13 5G MIMO Layer Distribution
Figure 33. Drive Route
Figure 34. Galaxy S22 and iPhone 13 Average Application Layer Throughput
Figure 35. Galaxy S22 and iPhone 13 Distribution of Application Layer Throughput - all 5G Data
Figure 36. Galaxy S22 PDSCH Throughput - Band n41 + Band n41 CA
Figure 37. PDSCH RB Allocations - Band n41 + Band n41 CA
Figure 38. Galaxy S22 PDSCH Throughput - Band n71 + Band n41 CA
Figure 39. PDSCH RB Allocations - Band n71 + Band n41 CA
Figure 40. Galaxy S22 RB Normalized 5G Band n41 Throughput versus CQI
Figure 41. Drive Route
Figure 42. Galaxy S22 and Pixel 6a Application Layer Throughput - 5G Band n41 PCI Filtered33
Figure 43. Galaxy S22 PDSCH Throughput
Figure 44. Galaxy S22 5G PDSCH RB Allocations
Figure 45. Galaxy S22 and Pixel 6a Application Layer Throughput - All 5G Data
Figure 46. Galaxy S22 and Pixel 6a Application Layer Throughput - All 5G Band n41 Data
Figure 47. Galaxy S22 and Pixel 6a Application Layer Throughput - All 5G Band n71 Data
Figure 48. Drive Route
Figure 49. Galaxy S22 and Motorola edge 2022 5G PDSCH Throughput - Band n41 Only
Figure 50. Galaxy S22 and Motorola edge 2022 5G PDSCH RB Allocations - Band n41 Only37
Figure 51. Galaxy S22 and Motorola edge 2022 5G RB Normalized Throughput - Band n41 Only
Figure 52. Galaxy S22 and Motorola edge 2022 Average MCS and MIMO Layer Count - Band n41 Only
Figure 53. XCAL-M
Figure 54. Umetrix Data Architecture
Companies Mentioned
- Apple
- Samsung
- Motorola
- Verizon
- Accuver Americas
- Spirent Communications
- MediaTek
- Qualcomm
