Apple’s in-house 5G modem was faster than Qualcomm’s 5G modem even though the C1 does not include support for the fastest mmWave 5G networks. Apple did this to save some money and also because most U.S. wireless users never get the opportunity to connect to a mmWave network because these signals travel over limited distances compared to mid-band and low-band networks.
As a result, while both phones were most likely connected to sub-6GHz 5G networks, had the pair been hooked up to a mmWave network, only the iPhone 16 Pro Max would have been able to support the faster downlink speeds that are obtainable with mmWave support. It should be noted that both phones were running on the Bell Network.
One theory is that the C1 was able to outperform the Snapdragon X71 because of the area where Dave2D performed the test which was in Toronto, Canada. As Dave2D points out, being a major city, there are cell towers everywhere in Toronto which he says makes testing Apple’s in-house mode less challenging for the C1. Had the test been conducted in a region where 5G towers are harder to find, we might have seen different results with the Snapdragon X71 5G modem coming out ahead.
There are other factors besides the modem that affect data speed. For example, network congestion, and the distance between cell towers are a couple that come to mind. The Speedtest app measures the speed of a user’s internet connection, not the speed of a modem. But for a quick and dirty test, these results show that the in-house modem in the iPhone 16e is very capable.
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