The birth of smartphone technology can easily be considered a major breakthrough in many aspects of life, be it in entertainment, business, and education. Today, website browsing, shopping, sending emails, and learning can be done with a smartphone. However, one perennial concern that seems to bug smartphone users is which operating system offers the fastest internet speed, and, therefore, the best one to buy.

Research done by melitabusiness.com shows that there are at least 9 smartphone OS options today. The list includes Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Android, and Apple OS, but the two most popular picks are Android and iOS. In this post, you’ll discover which of these two operating systems can give you the fast mobile speed you need.

Mobile Speed Factors

A smartphone’s internet speed matters a lot these days as most online transactions are already done via the phone. But mobile connectivity varies based on different factors. Research done by (melita.com) shows that the following are the key predictors of mobile speed:

  • Website Mobile-Friendliness – This factor refers to the website’s user interface, making it viewable even using a mobile device. A mobile-friendly site takes only a short time to load, has an easy-to-use menu, and has everything a regular site has minus the animations.
  • Location – Internet speed also depends on where you are on the operator’s coverage area and whether you’re near or far from the base station.
  • Mobile Hardware – Mobile speed could also vary based on the smartphone unit you’re using. You can expect a different signal strength from an Android OS used in Samsung, Sony, or Oppo smartphones. In the same way, the speed of iOS could vary if you’re using an iPhone 7, 9, or 11.
  • Data Transfer Technology – You can also observe a difference in your signal speed if you’re using a wireless, xDSL, or fiber-optic connection.
  • Router Position – The signal range of a Wi-Fi router is only up to 230 feet. And the strength could vary if there are walls, doors, or large objects blocking the router.
  • Wi-Fi Congestion – You can expect a decent signal strength if you’re using the internet connection exclusively. But the signal performance could decline during peak hours when a lot of people are using the broadband channel.
  • Compatibility – Mobile speed could also depend on the compatibility of your device, router, and software.

Taking all these factors into consideration, it’s easy to say that choosing a smartphone with mobile speed in mind could be a bit tricky. Add to that the wealth of units available on the market today.

Android Vs IOS: Mobile Speed Studies Results

Mobile speed tests were conducted across the globe to see who has the edge over this mobile speed race. And Ookla, the global internet performance analyzer, has been at the forefront of these long-standing studies.

Ookla’s data from January 2018, for instance, show that the mobile speed of the iPhone and Android is almost the same in Canada, which are 46.56Mpbs and 45.4Mbps respectively. In the US, the load speed of iOS is 27.27Mbps, while Android is at 29.26Mbps. Meanwhile, in terms of location, Ookla’s tests also show that Android loads faster in 25 countries, including South Africa, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Mongolia, and Iraq.

Another study published in Wired.com can also somehow shed some light as to which operating system can offer better mobile speed. The research features the websites of Fortune 1000 companies browsed using the latest Android OS (2.3) and Apple OS (4.3). The researchers used Android’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari browsers to conduct 45,000-page load tests.

The tests for all the 1000 sites were run on four different devices – iPhone 4.2, Galaxy S, Google Nexus S, and iPhone 4.3. And these devices were connected to the internet via a high-speed DSL connection and a Wi-Fi router. The test benchmarks include JavaScript load speed, as well as 3G versus Wi-Fi and regular versus mobile sites among others.

Key Findings of the Study

    • The average load speed of sites on Android is 52% faster than on iPhone devices.
    • iPhone’s website speed is 84% is slower than Android’s.
    • Android loads non-mobile sites faster than iPhone.
    • Android’s load speed for mobile sites is 3% faster.
  • Android loads non-mobile sites 59% faster than iPhone.
  • iPhone 4.3 loads 51% of the sites faster, but its load speed is actually 2% slower on average.
  • iPhone 4.2 loads websites faster on Wi-Fi in 82% of the sites.
  • 175 of the 1000 websites tested were designed with mobile-friendliness in mind. And on average, these mobile-friendly sites took 2.062 seconds to load, which is way faster than the 2.857-second page load speed of non-mobile sites. Mobile-friendly sites load 8% faster on Android and 66% faster on iPhone compared with regular websites.

Conclusion

Indeed, Internet performance tests done on mobile are important today, knowing the importance of more functional hand-held devices. When it comes to the choice between iOS and Android, studies seem to back up that Android is a more preferable OS, considering the location, website mobile-friendliness, and compatibility.