Test arguably shows modem in iPhone 16e is faster than the one in the iPhone 16 Pro Max
Apple's plan for its C1 in-house 5G modem chip, according to reports published last month, was to include it with the lower-priced iPhone 16e model and the ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air. By the time the second-generation C-series 5G modem chip is ready to be used in a complete premium iPhone flagship series, it will be the iPhone 18 line to be released in 2027. Apple hoped to have improved the component by then so that it would be faster than the Qualcomm Snapdragon 5G modem chip it had been using on the iPhone.
But as it turns out, Apple might not have to wait until 2027 to beat the Snapdragon 5G modem in a foot race. A YouTube content creator who goes by the name Dave2D posted a video showing that the iPhone 16e, using the C1 5G modem chip, was 40% faster on Speedtest.net than the iPhone 16 Pro Max outfitted with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X71 5G modem chip. The downlink speeds were 213.84Mbps and 152.77 for the Apple C1 5G modem chip and Qualcomm Snapdragon X71 5G modem chip respectively.
Apple's in-house 5G modem was faster than Qualcomm's 5G modem even though the C1 does not include support for the fastest mmWave 5G networks. Apple did this to save some money and also because most U.S. wireless users never get the opportunity to connect to a mmWave network because these signals travel over limited distances compared to mid-band and low-band networks.
Apple's C1 5G modem is faster than the Snapdragon X71 5G modem in this test. | Image credit-Dave2D
As a result, while both phones were most likely connected to sub-6GHz 5G networks, had the pair been hooked up to a mmWave network, only the iPhone 16 Pro Max would have been able to support the faster downlink speeds that are obtainable with mmWave support. It should be noted that both phones were running on the Bell Network.
One theory is that the C1 was able to outperform the Snapdragon X71 because of the area where Dave2D performed the test which was in Toronto, Canada. As Dave2D points out, being a major city, there are cell towers everywhere in Toronto which he says makes testing Apple's in-house mode less challenging for the C1. Had the test been conducted in a region where 5G towers are harder to find, we might have seen different results with the Snapdragon X71 5G modem coming out ahead.
There are other factors besides the modem that affect data speed. For example, network congestion, and the distance between cell towers are a couple that come to mind. The Speedtest app measures the speed of a user's internet connection, not the speed of a modem. But for a quick and dirty test, these results show that the in-house modem in the iPhone 16e is very capable.
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