Apple iPhone 15 disassembly reveals Snapdragon X70 5G modem

The leading disassembly specialist iFixit, has published photos of the Apple iPhone 15 motherboard, which show something interesting — the Qualcomm Snapdragon X70 modem. This is the same 5G modem used in the iPhone 15 Pro.

And it’s the same 5G modem used in the iPhone 15 Pro.

Interestingly, the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus use chipsets from last year’s iPhone 14 Pro — the A16 Bionic. Back then, however, those chipsets were paired with the old X65 modem. Now it’s A16 + X70 for the vanilla models and A17 + X70 for the Pros.

A16 + X70 for the Pros.

This means that Apple didn’t just take the motherboard from the 14 Pro and slip it into the iPhone 15’s case, but made a number of changes and upgrades. The X70 modem is more power-efficient than its predecessor, and features a new AI processor for improved performance.

By the way, in 2020, court documents surfaced during a legal battle between Apple and Qualcomm that revealed that a mix of X65 and X70 modems were originally planned for the 2022 and 2023 iPhones. That should have been the end of it, as the Apple giant wanted to switch to a modem of its own design.

Apple and Qualcomm have been working together on the modem.

There were a few issues (possibly legal) with this modem, so plans for the transition were continually delayed. Earlier this year, they were officially put on hold as the company extended its agreement with Qualcomm until 2026, so the next three generations of iPhones will also use Snapdragon modems.

And now, the company has officially put the Snapdragon modem on hold.