The iPhone and its Pro sister model are the first Apple smartphones to be included in 5G networks can transmit. Compared to other manufacturers like Samsung, the teardown of iFixit reveals a big difference: The millimeter wave antenna modules (mmWave) for frequencies from 24 GHz over short distances do not come from the quasi-monopoly Qualcomm.

The iFixit teardown of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro reveals Qualcomm’s 5G modem Snapdragon X 55 and the associated Snapdragon SDR transceiver 865 for low and mid band frequencies between 600 MHz and 6 GHz, the mmWave antenna modules come from the Chinese manufacturer USI.

The Chinese build more compact The website semianalysis refers to a USI press release from March 2020, in which the manufacturer draws attention to its own antenna technology. Accordingly, USI wants to set itself apart from Qualcomm with customer-specific adaptations – Apple is the first known customer.

Three such mmWave antenna modules from USI sit in the iPhone 12 (Pro) and transmit frequencies 24 GHz.

(Image: iFixit)

The primary reason for turning away from Qualcomm is likely to be the size: The own mmWave antenna module QTM 525 is almost 8 mm wide; Samsung’s Galaxy S 20 + 5G is the thinnest smartphone with QTM at 7.8 mm 525. The iPhone 12 is 7.4 mm thinner – two mmWave antenna modules sit across the sides , a third one behind the mainboard at the back. Qualcomm’s more compact successor QTM 525 will only appear together with the 5G modem Snapdragon X 60. In recent years, Apple has also increasingly tried to get away from Qualcomm as the sole mobile communications supplier.

Average repairable The 5G technology meanwhile requires adjustments to the interior design of the iPhone 12: That Mainboard is bigger because of the Snapdragon-X 24 chips. Standard batteries instead of the iconic L-shaped versions indicate savings measures to offset the surcharge for 5G mobile communications. 4 GByte LPDDR4-RAM (iPhone ) or 6 GByte (iPhone 12 Pro) are from Micron; on faster and more economical LPDDR5