iPhone Air Gets Faster and More Efficient C1X 5G Modem, But No mmWave

[svish]

Surprised to see a new C series chip. Expecting it to be more power efficient. Expecting Apple to quickly shift its devices to the new in house chips.

 

[loekf]

I don’t think there’s anywhere near accurate, at least for Verizon. Just in DC and Baltimore, there are Verizon mmWaves sites all over the place. That being said, I don’t think mmWave is critical for most users with a cell phone, but Verizon deploys it pretty widely in major cities. I think a more relevant metric would be the percent of people who encounter mmWave coverage daily - since the places that it is have much higher density, I’d guess it’s something like 30% of the US population.

I know other carriers deploy it significantly less.

mmWave is (almost) non existing here in Europe. 5G coverage is usually OK. In Germany on autobahns you still have to deal with 2G/Edge sometimes, because they are really lazy building infrastructure outside big cities.

 

[Hammerd]

Apple doesn’t want to pay Qualcomm any more than they deserve so wouldn’t be surprised if they kept the same modem chip in the x71 as they did by keeping the same s10 chip in the new Apple Watch.

The C2 modem is going to be very good next year. Apple say the new C1X modem chip is 2 times faster than the C1 chip. So the C2 with 5g advanced should be great next year.

Meanwhile flagship Androids are getting equipped with the x85

 

[match14]

So the C1X isn’t in the pro models?

 

[urungus]

So the C1X isn’t in the pro models?

Correct, so they should still support mmWave, unlike the air

 

[cdsapplefan]

So the C1X isn’t in the pro models?

Correct only because the new C1X does not support MMwave, but the C2 will support it next year and be in all the Pro Models. Goodbye Qualcomm!

 

[cdsapplefan]

Meanwhile flagship Androids are getting equipped with the x85

Samsung doesn’t have a problem paying Qualcomm but Apple 🍎 does.

 

[nateo200]

Even the density argument is pretty weak since many Asian cities make do without them (very well) even in their high density areas like major train stations.

Well I was also going to say there are better options in the 4.9/5GHz range as well as potentially the 8-12GHz range which has much better propagation properties that make it a good balance between mmWave and high band 3-4GHz spectrum.