One of Apple's main marketing strategies surrounding the upcoming iPhone 17 Air is that it will be the company's first device to feature not only an in-house Wi-Fi chip but also a custom 5G modem. In previous reports, we mentioned that the ultra-thin flagship would be equipped with these two components, but at the time it was unclear whether Apple planned to find the best baseband chip for the iPhone 17 Air or reuse parts already in existing models.
It turns out to be the latter, and while there are some useful scenarios for devices with C1 modems, the downside is that like the iPhone 16e, it will lose support for mmWave networks.
With the exception of the iPhone 17 Air, the entire iPhone 17 lineup is expected to be powered by Qualcomm's 5G modem, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Unfortunately, the thin and light version will not be equipped with a C2 baseband chip, as it will still be equipped with the same C1 baseband chip as the iPhone 16e. Perhaps one of the biggest drawbacks of this self-developed chip is that it does not support millimeter wave (mmWave) networks, and only supports networks in the frequency band below 6GHz. In most cases, devices connected to mmWave networks can achieve downstream speeds above 1Gbps, while devices in the sub-6GHz bands can achieve between 100-700Mbps.
However, the Sub-6GHz band has significantly greater coverage and range, making the band more reliable, not to mention less taxing on the battery. But the iPhone 16e is billed as the best 6.1-inch model for long battery life, thanks in part to its use of a C1 modem. The iPhone 17 Air is expected to have the same advantage, which is crucial considering the latter is rumored to have a battery capacity of just 2,800 mAh.
These improvements are possible because C1 works in conjunction with the smartphone’s A19 Pro chipset to intelligently determine which data traffic should be prioritized, adapting to the user’s needs and ultimately saving battery. In short, the extra features the iPhone 17 Air gets from not supporting mmWave networks should be worth it.