- The 5G modem from the 16E iPhone has surpassed the iPhone 16 in some tests
- His lack of support from MMWave could be the only thing that retains it
- This is a good omen for future iPhones and future versions of this modem.
An interesting aspect of the 16E iPhone is that it uses Apple’s modem C1. This is Apple’s first internal 5G modem, and so far the 16E iPhone is the only device in which you will find it.
As this is a cheaper phone than the rest of the iPhone 16 series, you can expect the C1 to follow the Qualcomm modem used in them, but in fact the tests suggest that the C1 could offer a better performance in most situations.
Ookla (through 9to5Mac) has compiled data from iPhone 16 and iPhone 16E users in the US, and discovered that the iPhone 16E offers 10th 27.35MBPS percentile discharge speeds, compared to 16.66mbps on iPhone 16. Those are essentially the speeds that users who experience the lowest performance on any phone can expect.
For median discharge speeds, the 16E iPhone also comes out at the top, 217.64Mbps compared to 210.55Mbps on iPhone 16. However, at the upper end, the iPhone 16 takes the victory, with 90th 756.13 MBPS percentile discharge speeds, compared to 560.4mbps on the 16E iPhone.
In particular, although these high speeds could be biased by the fact that the iPhone 16E does not support MMWAV 5G faster, while Ookla suspects that the future versions of the modem c1 will support it.
Equally good for loads
The 16E iPhone and its C1 modem are equally impressive when medium-sized speeds are observed, which the iPhone 16 comfortably exceeded the three tested operators (T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T).
All this is good news for Apple, since it suggests that the company could change its internal modem in all new iPhones without sacrificing speeds, and is even more impressive since Apple states that the C1 is also more efficient than other iPhone mode, which means that it should not affect both the battery life.
He puts the iPhone 16E in the unusual position of having an advantage over the best Apple models, apart from its lack of support from MMWave, but that is one more reason to buy this phone, and look to the future, it is a promising signal for future iPhones, especially since the next generation of this modem could be even better.
