iPhone 17 Wi-Fi Outperforms Android Flagships Despite Missing Key Wi-Fi 7 Feature: Ookla

2025 is turning into a surprisingly interesting year for Wi-Fi performance, and Apple seems to have taken a clear lead. According to fresh data from Ookla’s Speedtest Intelligence, the new in-house N1 wireless chip inside the iPhone 17 lineup is delivering noticeably better real-world Wi-Fi speeds than several Android flagships – even those using more advanced Wi-Fi 7 hardware on paper. Also Read: Google Reveals Best Apps And Games of 2025: Focus Friend And Pokémon TCG Pocket Lead, Check FULL List

So what exactly is happening here? Let’s understand it. Also Read: 6 Best Compact Phones For One-Hand Use In 2025

Apple’s N1 Chip Makes a Big Jump Over iPhone 16

With the iPhone 17 series – including the iPhone Air, iPhone 17, 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max – Apple has officially moved away from Broadcom’s Wi-Fi chips. The new N1 chip brings Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 6 and Thread radios into a single Apple-designed module.

Ookla analysed global crowdsourced data from the first six weeks after launch and found a clear 40% jump in median Wi-Fi speeds compared to the iPhone 16 lineup. What’s even more important is reliability: at the 10th percentile, which reflects poor or congested networks, performance improved significantly. This suggests that Apple’s chip isn’t just faster in ideal conditions – it holds up better in day-to-day situations where networks are messy.

Unlike top Android phones, the N1 chip does not support 320 MHz Wi-Fi channels, a key Wi-Fi 7 feature that helps boost peak speeds. But in real-world usage, most people don’t have routers that actually enable this.

How Android Flagships Compare

The Pixel 10 Pro briefly takes the overall global lead with 335.33 Mbps median download speeds – just above the iPhone 17’s 329.56 Mbps. Xiaomi’s 15T Pro dominates upload speeds and latency thanks to MediaTek’s Wi-Fi platform, while Samsung’s Galaxy S25 lineup shows the lowest latency across many regions.

Huawei’s Pura 80 series falls behind in peak speeds due to the lack of 6 GHz support but holds up well on traditional Wi-Fi 5/6 networks.