iPhone 16 Pro offers significantly faster 5G speeds thanks to new modem

Chance Miller | Sep 11 2024 - 4:11 pm PT

The iPhone 16 Pro features an upgraded modem inside courtesy of Qualcomm, bringing several notable improvements. As detailed by SpeedSmart, the new iPhone 16 Pro offers an up to 26% faster boost in 5G download speeds thanks to its new Qualcomm Snapdragon X75 modem.

Early test results show an average 23.7% increase in 5G download speeds with the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max across the three major carriers in the United States. Verizon appears to benefit the most from the new modem, with a 26.4% increase in 5G speeds, followed by AT&T and T-Mobile. There are also strong increases in upload speeds across all three carriers:

Both T-Mobile and Verizon show strong network performance with the new iPhone, reaching average download speeds of over 400 Mbps. These speeds are likely to improve further as T-Mobile’s 5G UC and Verizon’s UW coverage continue to expand.

AT&T also shows a healthy 25.7% increase in 5G download speeds with the new iPhone. Additionally, the Snapdragon X75 modem has made notable improvements in upload speeds, an often overlooked but important metric. Across all three networks, upload speeds have increased by 22.1%, with average speeds now comfortably over 30 Mbps.

Broadly speaking, the new Qualcomm Snapdragon X75 offers support for 5G advanced, lower power consumption, and “enhanced 5G carrier aggregation for faster upload speeds,” according to SpeedSmart. The iPhone 16 is believed to use the older Qualcomm Snapdragon X70 modem, but we’re still waiting on official confirmation of that.

As we detailed earlier this week, all four iPhone 16 models also offer support for Wi-Fi 7, which brings significant upgrades such as lower latency and much higher transfer speeds. Wi-Fi 7 is also capable of reaching speeds of up to 46 Gbps, over five times faster than the current generation of Wi-Fi.

Apple is continuing its work on an in-house 5G modem to replace Qualcomm. Most recently, Ming-Chi Kuo has indicated Apple’s first in-house 5G modems will debut in select 2025 iPhones. In the meantime, Apple continues to rely on modems from Qualcomm.

We’ll do more testing of the new iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro hardware once the devices are available later this month.