Macworld Almost hidden within the announcement of the iPhone 16e, Apple dropped something of a bombshell: It is producing its own 5G modems now. This has of course been rumored for a long time, and has frankly taken longer than expected;

The arrival of the iPhone 16e could tell us much about the upcoming iPhone 17 Air. The Latest Tech News, Delivered to Your Inbox

Phone 17 5G modems will be made by MediaTek, as Apple moves away from Qualcomm. Future iPhones will use Apple's solutions instead.

Apple's new 'e' series smartphone could be a regular thing: new iPhone 16e would be followed up by iPhone 17e in 2026 with in-house 5G modem.

The iPhone 16e, available for pre-order on Feb. 21, starts at $599. The smartphone comes in matte black and matte white.

Not doing things by halves, Geekerwan first used a synthetic cell tower broadcasting inside their labs to test the iPhone 16e against the regular iPhone 16’s Qualcomm modem, and have reassuring news for those looking to pick up the cheaper handset in the future.

The rest of the smartphone world doesn’t seem to mind buying Qualcomm’s modems, which hold a dominant market share, especially when you only consider high-end phones like the ones Apple makes. As current iPhone users know, Qualcomm’s 5G modems are solid, fast, and good. So why is Apple kicking against them so hard?

The first tests of the iPhone 16e’s cellular performance show promising results. The Chinese review site Geekerwan performed various

For years, Apple has relied on third-party companies, like Intel and Qualcomm, to provide 5G modems for its iPhones. But the company has long been working on developing its own modem to become more self-sufficient.

Apple's new iPhone 16e features the company's first in-house 5G modem, baseband chip on the new Apple C1 is made on TSMC 4nm, transceiver maed on 7nm.