I am ignoring the AI hype: Why Apple’s secret iPhone 18 Pro modem upgrade is the only feature I care about

Source Domain: www.phonearena.com

Every couple of years, the tech industry gets obsessed over a specific new trend. For the last few years, it’s been all about AI. But honestly, I find that a smarter Siri or AI photography tricks really don’t matter as much when my phone doesn’t get a good signal in some areas at all. Yep, everyone is currently looking at software tricks, but I’m now focusing on a tiny chip hidden inside the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro that may actually bring meaningful change.

Apple’s big move: the C2 move and the end of Qualcomm modems in iPhones

The iPhone 17 Pro Max. | Image by PhoneArena

For many years, Cupertino has used modems made by Qualcomm for the iPhone to connect to the internet. And I’m not saying those weren’t good, the strategy worked just fine. However, Apple seems to want to do things its own way. Then comes the C2. The C2 is Apple’s second-generation, in-house-built 5G modem. It comes after the C1X, which we saw in the iPhone Air, which itself succeeds the C1 that debuted in the iPhone 16e. The C1 was rather an experimental first step, if you ask me. But both these modems actually prove something huge, especially the more refined C1X. In a recent Ookla report, the C1X was found to have actually beat Qualcomm’s modem in latency in 19 out of 22 global markets.

Latency is, basically, delay. For example, it’s the waiting time between when you tap on a website link and when the page is loaded. And that latency could be annoying in some situations.

With the C2, things may get fascinating here. The way Apple builds its hardware is so that different components may communicate between themselves in a seamless and fast way. The C2 may be able to talk directly to the A20 chip in the iPhone 18 without any delays.

This way, Apple is getting a total control over the hardware, the software, and the connection…

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