The polemic began at the launch of the iPhone 7It's been just over a year, and now it's back.
In 2016 Apple was able for the first time to use two vendors for a very important component of the device: the modem. For those who do not know, this piece is responsible for the cellular connectivity of the smartphone and, until then, was always provided only by Qualcomm (segment leader). Last year, however, Intel entered the game by supplying chips for the T-Mobile / AT&T model and Verizon / Sprint for also using CDMA technology from GSM, continued to be supplied by Qualcomm.
Even the arrival of Intel motivated Apple to fight with Qualcomm as you may have read here on , the two companies are in a huge legal dispute (Ma alleging monopoly, improper collection of royalties and patent infringements; Qualcomm is already targeting patent infringements more), after all it is no longer alone and relying solely on Qualcomm technology to make its devices.
The fact that Apple has two suppliers of the same optimal component because it ends up with exclusive dependency; On the other hand, it opens the door to problems such as the one we are seeing. In short, Qualcomm's chips are better than Intel's. That simple.
On iPhone 7, tests have shown that while both modems reach the same top speed, the Qualcomm component capable of maintaining a higher speed as the LTE antenna signal gets weaker. Below is an example of the test conducted by Cellular Insights with professional measuring equipment (four Vivaldi antennas) simulating LTE performance at different distances from a cell tower.
Comparison of Intel and Qualcomm modems used in iPhones 7 and 7 Plus in band 7Now, with the release of iPhones 8 and X, Cellular Insights repeated the test on flagship Although this distance has shortened, Qualcomm's modem continues to perform better than Intel's, according to Apple. PCMag.
Comparison of Intel and Qualcomm Modems, Used in iPhone X, Band 4Both modems started with transfers from 195Mbps to -85dBm. But it was enough to reduce the signal slightly to start seeing Qualcomm's modem making the difference, with Intel's modem dropping to 169Mbps at -87dBm. To reach the same 169Mbps, Qualcomm's modem had to lose even more signal at -93dBm.
And the worse the signal, the bigger the difference: in such a bad scenario (-120dBm onwards), Cellular Insights tests indicated that on average Qualcomm's modem is 67% faster than Intel's. It is important to note that both lost relatively close connecting power (Intel's at -129dBm; Qualcomm's at -130dBm).
THE PCMag It also hypothesized that Apple was purposely interfering with Qualcomm's modem capacity so that it performs similarly to Intel's. Snapdragon X16 (from Qualcomm) is a gigabit-class modem, which supports 4 × 4 MIMO (but functionality is disabled on iPhone X). Thus, both modems have a maximum theoretical download speed of 600Mbps in many countries.
That is, if you want to get the most out of your iPhone X, we would recommend purchasing the Verizon / Sprint model of the iPhones 8, 8 Plus and X they can now be purchased from the Apple online store without any problem. As we know, even if these are not the homologated models here in Brazil, all are covered by the Ma warranty however, if your device is one of these, break down and need to be replaced with a new one, Apple give you, here in Brazil, the T-Mobile / AT&T model, which is approved and marketed in our country.
For those interested, full details of the tests including the technicians can be found in the post PCMag.
via MacRumors: 1, 2
