How the iPhone 16e's C1 Modem Stacks Up Against the iPhone 16 Qualcomm Modem

While we may still need more comprehensive test and data. But having higher performance at the lowest 10% signal is far more important than having highest performance most of the time. And we will just have to wait a few more months to get more real world data and feedback. But so far this is looking very good. Especially for first generation.

The article could be wrong as bucketing by %tile excludes the un-served. It could be that the 16 modem can serve ppl that are otherwise out of range for 16e, just at super low speeds.

If a lot of 16 users are in places the 16e doesn't go, that skews the 16's bottom 10%tile's mbps lower, but also means more users are served and therefore it has a better modem.

Given this data is from Ookla's Speedtest, I wonder if a lot of people in super super low reception areas wind up running Speedtest to see why their connection is slow, and are thus overrepresented in the data. If that were the case, the conclusion is even more statistically off.

This is a great start for Apple having just entered this product sector (even if they did just gobble up Intel's modem division to do it, it's still by no means easy), this is an outstanding showing. Apple's long term goal likely isnt to outcompete Qualcomm's modems, it's to cut them out and more tightly integrate everything, less outside technology means a higher profit margin and better efficiency since it's their own tech.

I expected way worse for first gen.