iPhone 13 May Feature Faster mmWave 5G Connectivity in More Countries

[MacRumors]

The iPhone 13 lineup may expand faster mmWave 5G connectivity to more countries outside the United States, according to Taiwanese supply chain sources cited by Patently Apple.

The report claims that a Taiwanese company called Qiqi is in the process of receiving a "large order" for mmWave antennas destined for the iPhone 13 lineup, which may explain Qiqi chairman Xie Hongbo's announcement that the company's 5G-related component shipments would increase significantly this year. Apple's mmWave antennas are currently manufactured by Japanese company Murata Manufacturing, which will apparently share orders with Qiqi for the iPhone 13.

Apple supplier Wistron reportedly invested in Qiqi, becoming its single largest shareholder, thereby helping to bring it into the iPhone supply chain for the first time. Qiqi apparently cooperates closely with Qualcomm on 5G and Wi-Fi 6 components, which was a key factor in the company being selected by Apple for mmWave parts.

In the United States, all iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro models feature both mmWave and sub-6GHz 5G. While mmWave is a faster form of 5G, it is less widespread and penetrates less well than sub-6GHz 5G, so the iPhone 12 features the ability to take advantage of both, depending on which is available. Outside the U.S., however, the iPhone 12 lineup only features slower sub-6GHz 5G.

The news that Apple is looking to order a large number of mmWave antennas and double its suppliers for the component may signal that iPhone 13 models will feature faster mmWave technology in more regions. Countries such as the UK, Germany, Canada, China, and Japan all have growing mmWave networks and would be able to benefit from faster 5G with the iPhone 13.

Moreover, the report notes that Qiqi is the market leader in designing antennas for laptops, which Apple could take advantage of to add 5G connectivity to a MacBook at some point in the future. For now, however, Apple's large order from Qiqi will reportedly support iPhone 13 lineup only.

Article Link: iPhone 13 May Feature Faster mmWave 5G Connectivity in More Countries

 

[iKnowMr.Jobs]

This year’s iPhones are gonna use the Qualcomm X60 modem (this has already been confirmed through the settlement docs), which will be physically smaller and more power efficient, which is what I think more people will care about. The modem itself will draw less power, and presumably, the phone can reclaim more space for its battery that it lost in the 12 series because of the current modem (X55). This will especially benefit the Mini.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

As an iPhone 12 user who lives in 5G range, allow me to tell you that the battery life hit is not worth it.
One day at my house, the power went out, and I was stuck using 5G. My phone drained from 100% down to about 55% in an hour, and all I was doing was listening to a podcast.
I turned off 5G-auto, and went back to regular LTE, and the battery drain immediately stopped.
The LTE loaded my podcast better as well.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

I wonder if they're going to use the same mmWave as iPhone 12 or an upgraded version.

 

[Cosmosent]

It's far more important that the 2nd-Gen 5G chips from Qualcomm have MUCH BETTER power efficiency, which they will !

 

[McKodiak]

5G service prices need to come down and better battery life on 5G. It's sooo bad.

 

[subi257]

5G service prices need to come down and better battery life on 5G. It's sooo bad.

Prices will come down eventually. The carriers need to recoup some of the, I don't know 10's 0r 100's of millions of dollars that it cost to purchase and install the 5G hardware.

 

[apparatchik]

Ive been very vocal about how 5G is basically worthless for common usage scenarios while negatively impacting battery life, the modem's inner space budget, producing higher heat levels etc. The X60 modem, however, might start to change this, even as the advantages of 5G over 4G+ remain mostly unchanged, as in just corner use cases benefit from it if at all.

Even as the most advanced device on most people hands (usually laptop, tablet, tv, etc are changed a lot less often), the devices that would benefit most from the advertised features of 5G are not smartphones, with their tiny screens and software limitations.

Without going into the self-driving cars and remote surgery marketing speech, 5G might actually be useful on a laptop or as a home broadband replacement so you can actually stream 4K/8K content to your TV or do actual work on your computer. On a phone, there's just so little you can do that is not already possible with 200 Mbps LTE. Online gaming, 4K Netflix, HD Live Streaming are all things you can already do from yout LTE+ iPhone 11.

 

[contacos]

Useless until we get actual unlimited data at affordable prices in my country. The only thing I can see 5G being worth for is to stream but I would never dare to stream or to download big chunks of data on mobile data thanks to data caps so it does not really matter to me if I am on LTE or 5G. What do I care if my page loads a split mili second faster or if my WhatsApp picture gets sent slightly and unnoticeable quicker if my battery life suffers instead

 

[FastLaneJB]

What mmWave network in the UK? Maybe not been paying attention but don’t believe there is one...

 

[now i see it]

so iPhone 12 is dog food and the steak is coming next year

 

[coolsean20]

5G, apart from mmWave, is a joke in the US. I’ll stick with 4G. 5G is all a marketing ploy. It loses in all the speed tests.

 

[ilikewhey]

if phone 13 get the x60 qualcomm, which apparently is 50% more efficient than the x55 in the 12. that would be a pretty big plus itself.

 

[subi257]

Ive been very vocal about how 5G is basically worthless for common usage scenarios while negatively impacting battery life, the modem's inner space budget, producing higher heat levels etc. The X60 modem, however, might start to change this, even as the advantages of 5G over 4G+ remain mostly unchanged, as in just corner use cases benefit from it if at all.

Even as the most advanced device on most people hands (usually laptop, tablet, tv, etc are changed a lot less often), the devices that would benefit most from the advertised features of 5G are not smartphones, with their tiny screens and software limitations.

Without going into the self-driving cars and remote surgery marketing speech, 5G might actually be useful on a laptop or as a home broadband replacement so you can actually stream 4K/8K content to your TV or do actual work on your computer. On a phone, there's just so little you can do that is not already possible with 200 Mbps LTE. Online gaming, 4K Netflix, HD Live Streaming are all things you can already do from yout LTE+ iPhone 11.

Keep in mind that this is the beginning of it here for US. It will improve over time as far as battery consumption. I think at some point there will be no actual phone, but almost like a pocket sized CPU that will somehow connect to some kind of a holdup/rollup screen. We are somewhat behind the rest of the world (Asia/Europe) on this tech and what can be done with mobile devices.

 

[SoGood]

Sounds good. Reason why for bypassing iPhone 12, the first iPhone generation bypassed. It’s a half baked 5G phone, not worth the money.

 

[Anson_431]

I'd be very interested to see how different in size are the modems in real life when fitted into the next iPhone, and also how it'll affect the overall board design and layout in the coming phone as well.

That said, I don't know why but I have a feeling that I might be holding out for another year given the development of 5G is....... pretty far from mature still.

Interesting enough though we are just barely able to keep our 4G network above half of its theoretical speed (around 150-190 Mbps?) as of now? Not sure how to put it, but it feels kind of weird to see the world moving to 5G that quickly yet everything seems....... unprepared??

 

[MiamiBeach]

so iPhone 12 is dog food and the steak is coming next year

In this case I’m glad I waited and didn’t purchase the 12 Pro!

 

[JPack]

I doubt the accuracy of this news.

Most countries outside the U.S. aren't falling for the mmWave trap. They have plenty of access to mid-band 5G, which enables speeds in excess of 1Gbps.

The laws of physics will prevent mmWave from being widely adopted. It's simply unsuitable for urban deployment.

These orders for additional mmWave antennas are likely for upcoming iPad and MacBook products with 5G.

 

[locrumo]

I'm happy with my SE 2020. As i see apple will need more years to design a normal iphone.

 

[Reason077]

As an iPhone 12 user who lives in 5G range, allow me to tell you that the battery life hit is not worth it.
One day at my house, the power went out, and I was stuck using 5G. My phone drained from 100% down to about 55% in an hour, and all I was doing was listening to a podcast.
I turned off 5G-auto, and went back to regular LTE, and the battery drain immediately stopped.
The LTE loaded my podcast better as well.

What I did (UK) was get a 5G MiFi router with an unlimited 5G SIM in it, which can run on battery but which I leave plugged in most of the time when I'm at home. My iPhone, MacBook and other devices connect via that over WiFi.

Cheaper, faster, and more reliable than wired internet (at least in my case, as there's no fibre available in my building), and it'll keep running for at least 8 hours or so in the event of a power outage.

Then I just use a cheap 8GB SIM in my iPhone, and take the 5G MiFi with me if I'm going to need lots of data.

 

[benshive]

Whenever I get a 5G capable phone I'll be happy if I get half the speeds I was promised I'd get with 4G. I swear they do the research for their marketed speeds while sitting on top of a cell tower ?

 

[ghostface147]

They (Verizon) can’t even get their 5G network working as well as their LTE. They’re not the same as they used to be.

 

[Digital Dude]

As an iPhone 12 user who lives in 5G range, allow me to tell you that the battery life hit is not worth it.
One day at my house, the power went out, and I was stuck using 5G. My phone drained from 100% down to about 55% in an hour, and all I was doing was listening to a podcast.
I turned off 5G-auto, and went back to regular LTE, and the battery drain immediately stopped.
The LTE loaded my podcast better as well.

Tell me again why we like Apple products so much? Between this and the myriad of OS issues through 2020, it's got to be the logo; because it sure the heck isn't the technology. Yet, here I am with a 12Max while I'm waiting for the AW6 to arrive. ? "Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead"

 

[smithrh]

The laws of physics will prevent mmWave from being widely adopted. It's simply unsuitable for urban deployment.

First part is right, but the second isn't... as right.

It's actually only suited for urban deployment. Places where people congregate in large-ish numbers. Arenas, stadiums, train stations, airports, shopping malls... Places where normal cellular doesn't work quite as well due to the physics involved.

Instead of having a ticked off customer be unable to access the network after a touchdown in a packed stadium, mmWave will work there quite well.

A huge selling point of mmWave is to offload those crowded events with bursts of traffic off the ordinary non-mmWave network so they don't disrupt what's going on there.

But what happened in 2020 was no one in arenas, no one in stadia, limited crowds in train stations and airports... Verizon bet hard on mmWave and it's been a loser so far.

Eventually, mmWave will pan out. But it will likely be years. Heck, before the iPhone, people didn't know what to do with wireless data. Something will come along in time to make mmWave attractive in some use cases.

 

[iGeek2019]

What mmWave network in the UK? Maybe not been paying attention but don’t believe there is one...

Might be mistaken and I’m happy to stand corrected but I believe Three have (or plan to).