SoC and Network Speeds: How Your Processor Influences Your Network Speed
Our smartphones are communications devices that help us talk to people who are near and far away. However there's a very important part of the phone that makes this happen. Do you know what it is?
Before anything else, a smartphone is a communications device. Its main purpose is to allow us to communicate wirelessly with other people. To do this, it has to connect to a network. This connection is managed and controlled by the SoC on your smartphone. In this post, we are going to explore SoC and Network Speeds and how your processor influences your network speeds.
An SoC is the brain of every smartphone. It is an intelligent chip that is made up of several CPUs, each responsible for a specific task. You can read more about SoCs here.
The part of the SoC that oversees network connections is called a Modem. A modem is a small radio frequency (RF) chip that manages how a smartphone connects to a wireless network. It also controls the physical antennas on the phone and can turn them on and off if need be.
How your processor influences your network speed
Network speed refers to the speed at which your phone can send and receive data to and from a network. This is a hidden fact that contributes to the speed of any smartphone.
Interacting with certain smartphones can be a frustrating experience, as they seem to operate at a sluggish pace. For instance, launching WhatsApp might feel like a waiting game, even with a strong network connection, and apps like Facebook seem to take an eternity to load. Online games can be a test of patience as well. Much of this lackluster performance can be attributed to the device's modem.
If a phone uses an SoC with a fast modem, the phone would connect well with a network. , This means that it would be able to send and receive data pretty quickly. So much so that everything on the phone feels “instant”. However, on a phone with a weak or slow modem, the network connection would be slow and unreliable especially if the signal strength dips.
How To Spot Processors With Good Modems That Can Influence Your Network Speed
You can spot the modem quality on any phone by looking for the name of the SoC. This post explains in detail how to know the SoC on your smartphone. Once you know the name of your SoC, you can do a quick search on the SoC or check our SoC list here. Simply scroll to the bottom of the spec sheet and check for the connection speeds.
- Cat 1 - 7 (slow)
- Cat 8 - 13 (fair)
- Cat 15 - 19 (good)
- Cat 20 - 24 (fast)