I'd argue that Apple+Intel wasn't that far behind not-Apple+Qualcomm. And the gap was almost entirely closed from 2016 to 2018: https://www.pcmag.com/news/iphone-xs-crushes-x-in-lte-speeds...
> Between the three 4x4 MIMO phones, you can see that in good signal conditions, the Qualcomm-powered Galaxy Note 9 and Google Pixel 2 still do a bit better than the iPhone XS Max. But as signal gets weaker, the XS Max really competes, showing that it's well tuned.
> Let's zoom in on very weak signal results. At signal levels below -120dBm (where all phones flicker between zero and one bar of reception) the XS Max is competitive with the Qualcomm phones and far superior to the iPhone X, although the Qualcomm phones can eke out a little bit more from very weak signals.