iPhone XS slow LTE and wifi

Just got off a support chat with "Jeffrey" where I reported the slow LTE speeds.

Here are some of his responses to my questions:

I'm getting slow LTE speeds on the iPhone XS.

Our engineers are aware of this issue. They are working hard at getting this fixed. They are asking you to make sure you keep your phone updated as the fix will come in an iOS update very soon.

What if it's a hardware issue? Some people are reporting no problems with WiFi or LTE speeds. Others like me are reporting many problems. So it may be a defective unit.

It is not hardware. If it was hardware I would be replacing your phone right now. It is an issue with certain Cellular Carriers and the way it speaks to the phones. I cannot speak to which carriers. All I can say is the fix is coming very soon. I promise a fix is coming very soon, keep your eyes open.

You always have 14 days from day of purchase to exchange or refund if you wish do so.

So the slow LTE may be a carrier software issue. My network is Verizon.

But that doesn't explain the people having WiFi problems. In my case I'm not having any WiFi speed issues.

Hi Guys,

I have tried resetting my phone through iTunes Restore option and looks like LTE issue resolved in my phone.

Try to restore using iTune this might help you as well. Make sure take backup before restore.

Just got an XS today. Everything seemed fine until I did a speed test on Verizon LTE. VERY SLOW download speeds compared to my 7.

A side by side comparison using the SpeedTest app to the same server from the exact same location:

iPhone XS download: 3 Mbps upload: 5 Mbps

iPhone 7 download: 17 Mbps upload: 3 Mbps

So the XS is slightly better on uploads but horrible on download speeds. The ping times were about the same. Neither test had any packet loss. The XS had 3 times the jitter. I did a network reset and got the same results.

I had decided to spend the extra bucks on the XS because of the promised faster LTE speeds vs the XR.

BTW the WiFi speeds seem just as fast as the 7: 179 Mbps.

I will be returning it tomorrow. I don't understand how the XS reviewers are getting high speeds unless some units are defective.

FYI Everyone who has this issue BETTER CALL YOUR PROVIDER, let them forward you to APPLE NOW and get the issue documented, because after 14 days you're stuck with that thing.

After chatting with support, I put the SIM in, powered up the XS and ran some speed tests. Don't know what changed, but the Verizon DTE speeds are normal now. Getting around 30 Mbps download and 5 upload. Maybe Verizon did something on their end. I didn't get a carrier update though.

Looks like I'll be keeping the phone after all.

Do it before 14 days!!!! Or they will say tough cookies!

How much LTE data do you use?

This looks exactly like carrier throttling after you have gone over a threshold for the month.

Make sure you are running the latest version of iOS.

I see no slowness with WiFi.

I am having this same problem. iPhone Xs Max on AT&T in NYC.

After getting my phone on launch day, I have cripplingly slow LTE speeds regardless of my location. Averaging ~1-3mbs as measure via Ookla Speedtest. In many instances my phone does not connect to LTE but goes down to 4G connection. Wifi speeds are terrible as well where I average ~10mbs at home vs my typical ~100mbs on my previous iPhone 7+ and other devices.

I am seeing people post similar issues. I have tried a network reset and have seen no improvements. I am also running the latest AT&T carrier v33.2.

My phone is devistatingly slow,. WiFi connection is pretty bad, it won’t even load full videos on Facebook or YouTube. All of my other devices work fine. As for LTE, Verizon has great coverage in my area and I’ve already experiences dropped calls and poor reception. Extremely frustrating, especially for people who use their phone for work.

If I compare to my iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 Plus, I do have a much weaker and unreliable service with my new iPhone XS Max using LTE, I am using T-Mobile. My carrier settings were updated 2 times last week, no visible change so far.

Having exactly the same issue with my iPhone XS and my wife’s XS in Japan!

Tried everything but nothing helped.

Seems it’s not (at least yet) a major issue in Japan because we couldn’t find any comments or news in Japanese about this problem except that it happens in US and Apple has started investigating this.

Really hope it’ll be fixed. It’s unacceptable speed.

Is here anybody who has got a replacement and everything works fine since??

I installed iOS 12.1 hoping the antenna issues would improve. Haven't noticed any improvement. I still see LTE bars go from 3 to 1 right after picking up the phone. The speeds are still slow when the signal is weak. I think I'm going to trade it in for an XR while I can.

I took it in yesterday to the Genius bar. They tried to convince me it wasn't a problem. I wasn't convinced.

Thank you for sharing this information. I'm late to the party as I just picked up the XS Max this weekend. I've tried most of the suggestions listed online and on this forum and resetting the network settings did help slightly with the wifi speed. Still not as fast as my 7plus which i'm thinking more and more I should have kept. I like the customer service rep's suggestion of a return which is exactly what I will be doing if speeds do not improve. This phone is way too expensive for us to have to wait for updates to fix something as important as speed.

Returned the XS yesterday for refund. Got an unlocked XR. I can live without the OLED display.