Apple revealed its custom C1 modem less than a month ago with the iPhone 16e, calling it the “most power-efficient modem ever on an iPhone.” It helps the 16e achieve the longest battery life of any 6.1-inch iPhone — but the new iPads Apple announced this week will not see these benefits.
After seeing suspicious specs on the new iPads, John Gruber says he spoke to an Apple representative and confirmed that they do not use the C1. This isn’t a complete surprise — Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said in December that Apple is planning a “three-year rollout” with these modems, which means not every product will make the switch right away. Gurman did, however, believe that “lower-end” iPads in 2025 would use the C1, and it appears he was mistaken.
The purpose of Apple’s custom C1 modem is to reduce the company’s reliance on Qualcomm modems but it’s unclear whether Apple’s first attempt matches Qualcomm in quality. Apple made big claims about its power efficiency with the iPhone 16e, but Gurman has claimed that we won’t see the C1 in any “higher-end” products for a while, suggesting that there are still improvements to be made.
So, how does all of this affect the new iPads? Perhaps they won’t be quite as power-efficient as the iPhone 16e, but Qualcomm modems have been doing a great job powering Apple products until now so it doesn’t seem like there will be any negative impact.
According to a recent X post from Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is also working on a “refreshed” version of the C1 to go into mass production next year. He says the company aims to improve power consumption and transmission speed, as well as support for mmWave.
Apple's C1 modem process technology:
– Baseband: 4/5nm (both technologies are similar)
– Low-frequency/Sub-6 TRx (Transceivers): 7nm
– Intermediate Frequency (IF) TRx: 7nm
– PMIC: 55nmThe C1 refreshed version is under development for mass production next year, aiming to improve…
— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) March 6, 2025
Willow Roberts has been a Computing Writer at Digital Trends for a year and has been writing for about a decade. She has a…
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