Your next iPhone could feature an important new chip

published 25 July 2024

Quick Summary

Apple's plans to make its own 5G modem have been delayed for several years now.

But a new report says it'll go into select iPhones from 2025 onwards.

Some Apple predictions turn out to be overly optimistic – so for example back in 2020 Apple announced that it was making its own 5G modem, and that was widely expected to appear in the iPhone 13. It didn't, and it didn't make it into the iPhone 14 or the iPhone 15 either. But a new report says that the chip is finally going to go into production, and we'll see it in the iPhone 17 Slim and the iPhone SE 4.

The report comes from well-known Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a good track record of Apple leaks and predictions. In a post on Medium, Kuo says that the Apple 5G modem will appear in 2025 on the aforementioned two iPhone models.

Does it matter who makes the 5G chip in your iPhone?

It does to Apple, which famously wants to control all the key technologies used in its products. Every current iPhone uses 5G modems from Qualcomm, but Apple's relationship with the chip maker hasn't always been cordial: for some years now Apple has been embroiled in a legal battle with the firm that has seen Qualcomm attempt to have the iPhone banned in the US, Germany and China.

Apple has previously described the move to make its own 5G modem as a "key strategic transition", but there are possible benefits for us too: by making its own chip instead of using an off the shelf one, it can adapt it to the iPhone's specific designs and optimise it specifically for the rest of the iPhone hardware. Previous rumours suggested that Apple's chip was designed to deliver exceptionally fast speeds, particularly in urban areas, and that it would also deliver improved battery life.

Although the new modem is tipped for the super-slim iPhone 17 and iPhone SE 4, it'll take a little bit longer to make its way into other iPhone models: Apple's deal with Qualcomm doesn't expire until 2026.

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Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).