Here's why Apple will debut its in-house 5G modem chip on the "budget" iPhone SE 4
It's been a long road but Apple is finally ready to start replacing the Qualcomm Snapdragon 5G modems found inside the iPhone with an in-house 5G modem chip designed by Apple and manufactured by TSMC. Apple and Qualcomm were involved in numerous legal battles during 2018-2019 while Apple pushed Intel to develop a 5G modem chip for the iPhone that it hoped would replace Qualcomm's component.
With Intel unable to satisfy the gang in Cupertino, Apple finally threw Qualcomm several sacks of cash to make sure that it would have Snapdragon 5G modem chips in time for the release of the iPhone 12, the first iOS device to support 5G. After Apple and Qualcomm made up, Apple uncharacteristically spent $1 billion to buy Intel's smartphone modem unit. The plan was for Apple to design its own in-house 5G modem chip.
Apple is expected to debut its in-house 5G modem chip with the iPhone SE 4
The modem is the component that connects a phone to a cell tower in order to make and take calls and connect to the internet. Obviously a critical part of a cellphone, Apple plans on debuting the in-house 5G modem, internally known as Sinope, inside the "budget" iPhone SE 4 which is expected to be released early in 2025. Apple will improve the modem over subsequent generations and make it more advanced.
A render of the Apple iPhone SE 4 which could be the first iPhone to sport the company's in-house 5G modem chip. | Image credit-PhoneArena
Besides the iPhone SE 4, the in-house 5G modem chip will also be employed by the rumored ultra-thin iPhone 17 model (codenamed D23) dubbed the iPhone 17 Air. This device will replace the iPhone Plus which debuted with the 2022 iPhone 14 line. That model, in turn, replaced the iPhone mini which failed to gain traction during the two years that the phone was offered by Apple (iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 13 mini in 2020 and 2021 respectively). It turned out that the iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 15 Plus, and iPhone 16 Plus also failed to generate big sales numbers.
Using its own 5G modem chip for the iPhone 17 Air will allow Apple to make the phone 2 mm thinner than the iPhone 16 Pro. The latter measures 8.25 mm thick. Apple will be able to make the iPhone 17 Air extremely thin while leaving enough room for the camera, battery, and display components.
Because a bad modem will prevent users from receiving phone calls and notifications, Apple decided to first include its new 5G modem with the lower-priced iPhone SE 4. This way any issues that pop up won't impact customers who paid big bucks for the more expensive, premium phones. There is something else that Apple had to consider. The in-house modem does not support high-band mmWave spectrum which delivers the fastest 10Gbps downlink data speeds.
The problem with mmWave spectrum is that the signals travel short distances making it almost impossible for wireless subscribers to find. Instead, the Sinope in-house modem supports sub 6-GHz airwaves which include the mid-band and C-band spectrum that most U.S. carriers favor. Qualcomm's modem supports both mmWave and sub-6GHz spectrum.
Apple's in-house modem also supports four carrier aggregation which combines bands from several carriers to increase the capacity of the network which in turn increases data speed. Qualcomm's modem chip supports six-carrier aggregation or more.
Will Apple's in-house 5G modem become more advanced than Qualcomm's Snapdragon modem chip?
Anonymous sources who didn't want to be identified because the project has not yet been announced by Apple say that the plan is for Apple's 5G modem chip to become more technologically advanced than Qualcomm's Snapdragon 5G modem by 2027. For now, some Apple employees are testing the in-house modem on devices given to them by the company. The speed of the first-gen Apple 5G modem will max out at 4Gbps which is slower than the max speeds available for Qualcomm's non-mmWave modems. But since most phones don't run at speeds near the maximum handled by these modems, this is not really a big deal.
On the other hand, Apple's in-house modem will be integrated with the in-house application processors that power iPhone models. That will allow Apple's modems to use less power, look for cell networks more efficiently, and offer better support for the iPhone's satellite connectivity feature than the Snapdragon modem.
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