Reported Performance Discrepancies Between Intel and Qualcomm Modems in the iPhone 7 ⇥ 9to5mac.com

Jeff Benjamin, 9to5Mac:

The report from Cellular Insights finds that iPhone 7’s equipped with Qualcomm’s MDM9645M modem, which powers the (A1660, A1661) Verizon, Sprint, and SIM-free models, features better cellular performance than the (A1778, A1784) Intel version. Not only that, but the Qualcomm version’s ability to take advantage of Ultra HD Voice has been disabled as well according to the report.

I wouldn’t read too much into this report. Remember last year’s brief controversy about the performance differences between the dual-sourced A9 SoCs? It quickly fizzled out after Apple noted that all iPhones experience slight differences in processor performance and battery life due to variances in manufacturing processes. There’s no reason to suspect that Apple has dual-sourced their modems this year without assuring comparable real-world performance.