An iPhone 17 Pro Max teardown confirms Apple sticking with Qualcomm’s modem for its flagship iPhones this year. The company did not specifically confirm using Qualcomm’s baseband on the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro models while unveiling them.
This is unlike the iPhone Air, which uses Apple’s second-gen C1X modem.
Not brand-new, but Qualcomm’s modem tops Apple’s C1X
After Intel left the modem business, Apple has been exclusively using Qualcomm’s modem on its devices. That is, until the iPhone 16e launched earlier this year, featuring the company’s in-house C1 modem. Apple boasted that the baseband is the most efficient iPhone modem ever, being up to 25% more power efficient. But this efficiency came at the cost of missing mmWave 5G connectivity.
Six months later, with the iPhone Air, Apple introduced its second-gen C1X baseband. It supports even faster mobile data download speeds while being 30% more efficient. Despite the improvements, Apple did not mention using its in-house modem on the iPhone 17 Pro. A teardown (via Reddit) now confirms the company is still relying on Qualcomm modems for its Pro iPhones.
Even better, based on the markings on the modem, the iPhone 17 Pro uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X80 modem. While not the latest, this new baseband uses AI to boost data speeds, network coverage, latency and power efficiency. And unlike Apple’s C1X modem, it supports both sub-6GHz and mmWave 5G, along with satellite connectivity.
iPhone 18 could ditch Qualcomm for Apple’s in-house modem
Qualcomm already has the newer X85 modem, promising 30% better AI inference alongside faster peak download and upload speeds compared to its predecessor. Still, the X80 modem inside the iPhone 17 should lead to a decent increase in 5G speeds.