Apple's First 5G Modem May Compete With Qualcomm's Snapdragon X70

The latest 5G modem promises greatly improved bandwidth, latency, and power efficiency, but might never appear in an iPhone.

- By Jason Cross

As it often does around this time of year, Qualcomm recently announced its latest and greatest 5G cellular modem. The Snapdragon X70 (fave.co/3pLW74t), as it is called, is the successor to the Snapdragon X65 and promises higher real-world bandwidth, lower power use, and lower latency. The highlight is a built-in Al processor that will dynamic, real-time optimizations to improve connection quality.

But don't get too excited about it just yet. The Snapdragon X65 (fave.co/3pLW74t), announced early last year, is only just now starting to appear in the first Android phones and isn't expected to feature in an iPhone until the iPhone 14 this fall. The iPhone 13 uses the Snapdragon X60 and the iPhone 12 uses the Snapdragon X55.

We don't expect any phones with the Snapdragon X70 until early in 2023, and the first iPhone with the modem system should be the iPhone 15 in the fall of 2023. What's more, Apple has been working on designing its own cellular modems for years, and 2023 might be the first year it's actually ready for market, putting the two modems on a collision course.