Apple’s iPhone 16e is notable for a bunch of reasons, including killing off the Home button and Apple’s use of LCD screens in its handsets.
Away from these obvious upgrades, there was one other invisible change: the Qualcomm modem was replaced with one designed and built by Apple. The C1 modem is, according to the company, just the beginning, and one report says the company has already begun testing the C2.
In the here and now, the company says that iPhone 16e users should expect similar 5G performance to other iPhones — albeit without mmWave technology, and improved energy efficiency. That appears to be the case, with a new video from the Chinese website Geekerwan bearing that out via a series of comprehensive tests.
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.
Broadly speaking, speed and performance were indistinguishable between the handsets. This was replicated on a second test on a real-world subway journey where the phones had the same average connection strength and a similar number of dropouts.
The C1 difference
But there’s better news for iPhone 16e buyers and for those looking at upcoming iPhones tipped to adopt the technology.
With a high 5G signal, the iPhone 16’s power draw was 0.88 watts, while the iPhone 16e drew 0.67 watts. In a low signal test, the figures were 0.81 watts and 0.67 watts, meaning that the C1 modem drew between 17% and 24% less power — not far off the 25% improved efficiency that Apple reported itself.
This bore out in the phones’ respective battery life over the 5G tests. While the iPhone 16 died after seven hours, the iPhone 16e managed an extra 53 minutes in the same test.
That said, correlation isn’t the same as causation, and other factors could have given the cheaper model the win here — not least the fact that it has a 3,961mAh battery, compared to the iPhone 16’s 3,561mAh capacity.
Still, this all bodes well for future iPhones leaning on Apple’s own modem technology. It’s not clear whether every iPhone 17 handset is going to completely ditch Qualcomm this September, but the analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that at least one model — the iPhone 17 Air — will pack the C1 modem. With a rumored 5.64mm frame, the phone will certainly benefit from being able to eke out every bit of juice from a necessarily lower battery capacity.
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