iFixit iPhone 8 Teardown Finds Qualcomm Gigabit Modem

The iPhone 8 runs Qualcomm's finest modem—information technology just doesn't accept the antennas to deliver its finest performance, iFixit'south annual iPhone teardown reveals.

Apple review, Apple commentary, Apple news... Everything Apple The most notable function in iFixit's teardown is the Qualcomm X16 modem with its WTR5975 RF transciever. This is the same modem used in leading Android smartphones, including the Samsung Milky way S8, Note eight, Moto Z2 Force, and the Essential PH-1. We looked at where those phones stand in terms of modem features last week.

The X16 is capable of "gigabit" speeds, which aren't really gigabit anywhere exterior test labs, but they're the fastest speeds that current networks are capable of. As we saw in our Fastest Mobile Networks tests, the Samsung Galaxy S8'south "gigabit" system was noticeably faster than other phones even on pre-"gigabit" networks.

But alas, the iPhone eight is not a gigabit phone later all. To hit gigabit speeds, you lot demand three components: the modem, antennas for 4x4 MIMO, and software support for 256/64QAM encoding. We've learned that the iPhone 8 doesn't have the four antennas needed for 4x4 MIMO, which would restrict it to either 600Mbps or 800Mbps, depending on the way the remainder of the phone is configured.

The lack of 4x4 isn't only about speed. 4x4 MIMO tends to improve coverage in edge and weak bespeak areas, which may contribute to why the iPhone 8 all the same takes longer to recover from dead zones than the Galaxy S8, in our testing.

You lot'll withal get better functioning on the iPhone viii versus the iPhone 7, which had Qualcomm'southward Snapdragon X12, especially in Canada. The X16 supports four-carrier aggregation, which Bong and Telus in Canada are using to reach real-globe speeds pushing 500Mbps, according to our Fastest Mobile Networks Canada tests. The iPhone 7'southward X12 only had 3-carrier aggregation.

This Happened on Purpose

Apple tree could have put 4x4 MIMO antennas in its phone; information technology probably didn't because of Intel.

At that place are three unlike SKUs of each iPhone eight model: one with CDMA, one without, and one for Japan. We're pretty sure the CDMA and Japan SKUs use the X16. But nosotros call up the tertiary model uses an Intel modem, the XMM7480, which doesn't back up 4x4 MIMO. Apple doesn't want the different models of its phone to perform very differently.

At that place's no teardown of an Intel version of the iPhone eight all the same, but we think it'll come in time. We'll proceed peering into the iPhone 8's modem capabilities over the next week and continue y'all updated.