...the day before yesterday I had both the Xs and my S10e with me and I spent a good deal of time swapping the SIM between the two and comparing signal strength, not using bars but looking at the actual db results. The Samsung phone consistently showed between 3 and 4 db better coverage than the iphone (nothing drastic but noteworthy).
In poor signal areas, that is definitely enough to make a difference between having good data and not having it, or being able to make a call and not being able to make a call.
I really wanted to own the iphone because of its dual SIM capabilities, but the deal breaker was when I got up yesterday morning and saw that the iphone, for whatever reason was coming in between 12 and 15 db worse than the Samsung.
I have an XS Max and an Android play phone, an LG V30 with an excellent Qualcomm modem.
It has been my experience that the iPhone will hold onto a bad signal long after the LG V30 has moved to a better signal. Sometimes it is a different array altogether, and sometimes it is a different signal on the same array.
I think Apple is going to discover that this alliance with Intel was just a mistake all the way around. They need either their own modems, or find a way to come to an agreement with Qualcomm.
It's the ecosystem that has kept me on iPhones, but the superiority of the Qualcomm modems has become rather clear.
My world is full of iMac, MacBook, iPad, iPhone, Apple TV, and other things I've probably forgot about.
If their "world" were not so obviously superior to the Android and Windows world, I'd probably have a Qualcomm-based device by now, ARM iOS tailoring notwithstanding.
It's time to up the game, "Tim Apple."