Apple's 2018 iPhones could have 62x faster internet speeds

Now that you've had plenty of time to come to grips with the iPhone X's notch, let's talk about next year's iPhone. Yeah, seriously.

In a new investor research note obtained by AppleInsider, KGI Securities analyst Ming Chi-Kuo said he believes next year's iPhone(s) may support gigabit LTE, which would significantly speed up your internet upload and download speeds.

Kuo claims next-gen iPhones will come with several upgrades to the antenna that will enable these faster speeds, including "liquid crystal polymer" flexible circuit boards to improve wireless reception.

Apple might also include four antennas (4x4 MIMO) to increase data throughput and download speeds. The iPhone X and iPhone 8 and 8 Plus only contain two antennas (2x2 MIMO).

Nerdy as these internal changes sound, they would have a tremendous impact on how fast and reliable your internet connection is.

Theoretically, gigabit LTE means you could see downloads as fast as 1Gbps. With such speeds, a two-hour movie could be downloaded in 15 seconds, according to T-Mobile.

Of course, while 1Gbps downloads would be peak performance -- compared to the 30-50Mbps we currently see on T-Mobile in New York City -- everyday speeds would likely be lower. Depending on your network, speeds will vary.

But whether it's 100Mbps or 900Mbps, that's still many times faster than most American LTE speeds, which are woefully slow. A report created by OpenSignal in February revealed T-Mobile and Verizon, the two fastest LTE networks in the U.S. had average LTE download speeds of only 16.7Mbps and 16.9Mbps, respectively. At peak gigabit LTE, you could see download speeds improve by up to 62x based off existing average speeds.

If Kuo's information is accurate -- and his analysis is usually is pretty solid -- Apple would finally be catching up to some Android phones, which already support gigabit LTE even if mobile carriers haven't deployed the speeds yet.

For example, Samsung's Galaxy S8 was one of the first phones to include gigabit LTE support.

Next year's iPhones are a long ways away, but we wouldn't put it past Apple to improve internet speeds. Who wouldn't want faster internet?