It has been a week since the iPhone 12 series was released. According to the iPhone’s biennial update rhythm, this iPhone is in a “small year”. Recently, a supplier revealed that the iPhone 12’s camera sensor Exactly the same as last year's 11.
Therefore, in addition to the processor upgrades every year, the biggest upgrade highlight of the iPhone 12 series falls on 5G. As Apple's first 5G mobile phone, how does it perform?
Foreign media TheVerge conducted tests in Oakland and San Francisco. Under the Sub-6 frequency band, iPhone 12 has a download speed of 30-600Mbps; when using Verizon’s millimeter wave technology (UWB), Can reach speeds of 1400-2400Mbps (1.4-2.4Gbps).
Whether it is Sub-6 or millimeter wave data, it is currently far from the ideal experimental data of 3500Mbps advertised in the release. The Verge even said, "In most cases, the 5G experience is only better than 4G is faster.”
At the same time, TheVerge found that there is a “crack” in the signal status bar on the iPhone 12 model. In the default mode, the iPhone 12 will activate the “smart 5G” mode, and the system will automatically decide whether to Connect to 5G network. Therefore, in many cases, the iPhone 12 will display 5G in the upper right corner (as long as there is a 5G signal nearby), but it is actually still using the 4G network.
The author speculates that this mechanism may depend on the software the user is currently using and the type of data being downloaded (such as movies). In fact, most Android phones currently have a similar mechanism, and its purpose is to avoid heating and power consumption caused by always turning on 5G.
The "Smart 5G" mode can also be forcibly turned off in iPhone 12. However, due to incomplete 5G signal coverage, the phone's power consumption will increase rapidly when searching for signals for a long time.
Let’s talk about the situation in China. According to "Create It", in the 5G test environment in Beijing, the download rate of iPhone 12 fluctuated drastically between 50-700Mbps. The speed mainly depends on the usage environment. If it is used in a base station At the edge of signal coverage, or in offices, shops, garages, elevators, or subways with many partitions, download speeds will drop dramatically.
Generally speaking, under the Sub-6 frequency band of iPhone 12, the 5G speeds of China and the United States are at the same level. Although the Chinese version of the iPhone does not support millimeter waves, considering that millimeter waves are extremely For smaller coverage spots, Sub-6 is a more mature choice.
According to a report by the Broadband Development Alliance under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in the second quarter of 2019, the average download rate of my country's 4G network when accessing the Internet reached 23Mbps. Therefore, although the speed provided by the 5G signal is very unstable, the iPhone 12 can still provide an average speed of about twice that of 4G when 5G is turned on.
Apple held high the 5G banner at the press conference, but the Android camp has been planning on 5G for two years. After the press conference, Samsung even insinuated Apple’s 5G efforts in its official media account. of sluggishness.
To realize 5G, the most critical thing is the communication baseband chip. Apple has been using Qualcomm’s baseband chip since the iPhone 4.
Qualcomm relies on its patent monopoly to charge high patent fees for each iPhone.
In order to reduce costs and stabilize the supply chain, Apple began to cooperate with Intel in 2015. Since then, the two parties have entered into a five-year "marriage". Intel has formed a team of thousands of people to serve Apple, a major customer, and Apple has also continued to expand its business in four consecutive years. Intel’s baseband chips are preferred for first-generation models.
However, the performance of Intel baseband chips is not satisfactory. The Intel XMM 7360 baseband chip on iPhone 7 has a maximum download speed of 450Mbps, while the iPhone 7 equipped with Qualcomm baseband can reach 600Mbps.
iPhone 8 also uses a dual-chip version. The maximum downlink rate of Intel XMM 7480 is 600Mbps, and Qualcomm’s X16 baseband reaches 1Gbps, which is a generation behind in performance.
Intel baseband chips on the iPhone 8 series
The same gap extends to the iPhone XS and iPhone 11 series. Intel’s chips perform unstable, and many users report poor network connections and slow speeds.
When it comes to 5G chips, Intel is still lagging behind. Intel previously had two 5G baseband chips, XMM8060 and XMM8160. The 8060 could have been mass-produced in 2019, but the heating problem has never been solved. The 8160 is an upgraded version, which improved the heating problem through the 10nm process, but the research and development of the 8160 chip has been repeatedly delayed. , and even missed the final delivery date given by Apple.
In order to take care of its pig teammates, Apple has made a lot of efforts and used its chip experience accumulated over many years of cooperation with Qualcomm (and some Qualcomm patents) to help Intel develop. Apple also deliberately suppressed the capabilities of Qualcomm chips. , on each generation of dual-chip versions, the network upload and download speed of the mobile phone does not exceed the limit of the Intel chip.
However, Intel's capabilities in baseband chips have not improved, and Apple's rumored self-developed baseband chips have also been missing, which ultimately led to Apple returning to Qualcomm's customer list.
At present, the baseband chip provided by Qualcomm has finally solved the iPhone’s signal problem that has been difficult for many years. It is excellent enough in terms of 5G speed and heat control. Of course, Apple’s software is also indispensable. Optimizations made at different levels.
Only after solving the core problem, the 5G speed promised by iPhone 12 is still a fantasy. The reason is no longer the iPhone, but because the construction of 5G infrastructure has completely lagged behind the load capacity of the terminal.
The iPhone has created an era by laying the foundation for the combination of smartphone form and 4G. As a benchmark for the entire industry, it has not played a leading role in 5G, nor will it bring quality due to the release of new phones. of change.
As TheVerge concluded, “The 5G capabilities of iPhone 12 are good enough, even better than most Android phones, but for now, 5G alone does not constitute a reason for you and me to buy a new iPhone. reason."