Faster web browsing expected from HSPA+ ready iPhone 5

The iPhone 5 will be thinly cased in gold, with a bigger diamond-set screen, forged in the fires of centre of the earth itself. Or that’s what you’d hope for given the fervour building up around next week’s expected launch. Many of the rumours surrounding the next-gen Apple smartphone focus on the devices possible external design, but the latest rumour to come out of China promises something even more exciting than an ever-so-slightly thinner chassis; the iPhone 5 may well offer drastically faster browsing speeds.

As spotted in a slide from a presentation given by Chinese operator China Unicom (Apple’s lead Chinese iPhone operator), the next Apple mobile device (be that the iPhone 5 or possible iPhone 4S) will have a HSPA+ connection offering download speeds of 21Mbps thanks to an improved antenna.

Compare that speed to the 7.2Mbps download speeds possible on the current iPhone 4 model and you’re looking at supercharged browsing on the go.

Specifically, the iPhone 5 will support the W-CDMA based high-speed data transfer standard HSPA Evolution ‘HSPA+’, according to Mac Rumours.

It’s not the even-faster LTE tech some may have hoped for, but perhaps that’s a good thing; LTE connectivity is only just now becoming widespread in the States, and is still missing on English shores. HSPA+ connectivity however is supported by networks like Three and Vodafone in the UK.