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iFixit‘s lead teardown technician, Shahram Mokhtari, revealed on Twitter an interesting detail about the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus: they are both using an updated Qualcomm 5G modem. This means the two models are also using the same X70 modem featured in the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Previously, many thought that the modem update was limited to the Pro versions of the series since Apple is known to bring the previous Pro hardware components to its new standard iPhones. However, Mokhtari stressed in a recent post that Apple actually made a significant modem upgrade to the entire series this year.
“A lot of people have asked whether the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus are still using last years Qualcomm X65 modem or the new X70 seen in the 15 Pro’s,” the technician posted. “Here’s your answer: Apple didn’t just throw last year’s Pro logic boards into this year’s baseline models. They upgraded them, too.”
This is unsurprising, as Apple did with last year’s iPhone 14 series, where every model was given Qualcomm’s X65 modem. If this will be observed as a pattern, it might mean that Apple would collectively upgrade the modem of all its iPhone models in a series every year.
“It also shows that Apple’s baseline models aren’t just the younger siblings forever receiving last years hand-me-downs,” Mokhtari enthused over the move. “There seems to be a genuine drive to keep the components on the logic boards up to date and current, despite the additional resources required to do so.”
With this, it should mean that the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max should all have a more powerful 5G performance.
Recently, a test conducted on the Pro models of the series showed that Qualcomm‘s Snapdragon X70 modem allows the units to have up to 24% faster 5G connectivity. The report revealed how fast 5G is on the iPhone 15 Pro models employing the services of T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon.
“Verizon had the biggest gain with the new phones being 24% faster, T-Mobile a close second at 22% faster but with 300 Mbps being the average download speed across the country,” SpeedSmart shared. “AT&T had a 14.6% faster average download speed.”
