The Galaxy S21 has better 5G download speeds than the iPhone 12

5G is better on Android, according to OpenSignal.

What you need to know

• An Opensignal report shed some light on 5G performance on Android phones vs iPhones in the US.
• Android phones outperformed the iPhone, with even cheap phones like the A51 pulling ahead of the iPhone 12 Pro.
• Samsung accounted for 60% of the top 25 performers in the list.

If you’re buying an Android phone this year, you’ll likely have 5G onboard. Whether it’s the ostentatious Galaxy S21 Ultra, the sensible Pixel 5, or even the cheap Nord N10, there’s going to be a 5G option for your budget.

Now, it also turns out that the best Android phones are better than the iPhone in terms of 5G download speed. The report comes from Opensignal who claimed that Apple’s iPhones trailed almost every relevant 5G Android phone in terms of download speed.

To contextualize this, the Galaxy A51 5G has download speeds of 38.6 Mbs, faster than the iPhone 12 Pro’s 36.9 Mbs. That’s before we get into true flagship phones like the S21 and 8T which handily beat out Apple’s phone with speeds of 56.0 Mbs and 49.3 Mbs respectively.

Opensignal notes that Samsung dominates the rankings, accounting for 60% of the top 25 fastest 5G phones in the U.S. It may be partly due to the breadth of the company’s portfolio. Rivals like Google or OnePlus only offer a few phones a year, while Samsung has a lot of phones

On foldables, the Opensignal report also added that their placement on the list was to be applauded, commenting:

Folding smartphones are still rare because of the complexities of incorporating not just the display, but all of the other electronics that need to find a home in a radically different case. The antennas that are critical for cellular reception represent a particular challenge, because they must work if the phone is open or closed, and regardless of how users hold the phone. It’s reassuring for carriers, users, and smartphone makers to see their foldable smartphone models rank with similar high average download speeds to their less complicated designed conventional peers.

Whether you’re getting a conventional smartphone or a foldable smartphone, Opensignal’s report is another reason to pick up an Android device over an iPhone.