When Apple launches the iPhone 15 it will come with a new engine under the hood which offers a little speed where it counts.
This engine is the Qualcomm Snapdragon X70 modem that promises some nice improvements over the iPhone 14.
The X70 offers the first AI-augmented 5G modem chip and leverages a processor that optimizes antennas much more quickly than older modems.
According to test site SpeedSmart the iPhone 15 is 24% faster than the iPhone 14, and the improvements come on all carriers with improvements on both upload and download tests.
When 5G was launched in 2019 cellular service providers bragged that speeds were up to 100 times faster than 4G.
As all three of the big cellular providers in the US have embraced 5G, further improvements have been harder to come by.
T-Mobile continues to dominate both Verizon and AT&T in terms of native 5G speed, which average speeds 2 times faster than both competitors.
And while the network itself is half the battle, the devices doing the downloads need to be optimized to take advantage of the speed.
This led to the recent announcement by Qualcomm that Apple will utilize the Snapdragon X70 in all phones Apple produces until 2026.
This is an interesting development since Apple is partnering with a company that is competing with Apple’s own modem chip business, which it purchased from Intel in 2019.
This new deal makes it obvious that the Qualcomm AI modem chip outperforms Apple’s own tech, and for now, the rivals have been partners.
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