Report: Apple's new N1 chip at Broadcom level – no 320 MHz
A look at Apple's specifications, which the company has communicated to the US regulator, shows what is possible with Wi-Fi 7 with the N1 – and what is not.
Apple N1 and C1X: Combined WLAN and Bluetooth chip plus new modem chip.
(Image: Apple)
Anyone hoping that Apple would make full use of what is possible with Wi-Fi 7 in its brand-new combined Bluetooth, Thread, and Wi-Fi radio chip N1 in the iPhone 17 will unfortunately be disappointed: as documents submitted to the US radio network regulator, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which Macrumors has discovered, there are no changes compared to the Broadcom chips installed in older models. Specifically, it concerns the maximum possible channel width of 320 MHz in the 6 GHz band, which Wi-Fi 7 actually allows.
Various requirements necessary
As with Broadcom chips, Apple also limits this to 160 MHz (alternatively 20, 40, or 80 MHz) for the N1, i.e., it does not increase it. This means that the iPhone 17 series does not reach the theoretical Wi-Fi 7 maximum speed. The term “theoretical” should also be taken literally here: a whole range of conditions would have to be met (such as a suitable router and no interference) to achieve this.
In addition, internet providers do not offer the bandwidth anyway, so it is only a matter of transmissions in the home network. With Wi-Fi 7, four MIMO streams and a channel width of 320 MHz, 11,530 Mbit/s would be possible; at 160 MHz, it is 5760 Mbit/s. However, Wi-Fi 7 remote stations are only spreading slowly, and not all of them support 320 MHz. Only when both the base station and the client can do this will Wi-Fi 7 offer full speed.
Videos by heise
N1 more closely linked to the iPhone
According to Apple, the N1 has several advantages as a combination chip. Because only Apple knows its hardware so well, it is precisely adapted to the iPhone 17 and should therefore offer faster performance for system services such as AirDrop and personal hotspot—although it is still unclear how much faster.
In addition, there are energy-saving options that only Apple is capable of, because the N1 is supposed to be more deeply anchored in the system than the components from suppliers. Apple can also update the internal firmware faster (e.g., with an iOS update) without having to wait for Broadcom. The iPhone 17 models will be on sale from Friday.
Empfohlener redaktioneller Inhalt
Mit Ihrer Zustimmung wird hier ein externer Preisvergleich (heise Preisvergleich) geladen.
Ich bin damit einverstanden, dass mir externe Inhalte angezeigt werden. Damit können personenbezogene Daten an Drittplattformen (heise Preisvergleich) übermittelt werden. Mehr dazu in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.
(bsc)
