Apple iPhone 16 and 16 Plus: 8GB RAM and Wi-Fi 6E
The Apple iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will both have 8GB of RAM, two GB more than the current iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus. The news comes from technology analyst Jeff Pu and his investment firm Haitong International Securities. More memory usually leads to better multitasking results. Pu also assumes that the Apple iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will support Wi-Fi 6E. Wi-Fi 6E works on the 6 GHz band. Provided you have a compatible router, it offers faster WiFi speeds and less signal interference. For the iPhone 15 series, Wi-Fi 6E is limited to the Pro models.
According to Pu, the next restriction is already in sight. It concerns Qualcomm’s latest cellular modem, which could be limited to the Apple iPhone 16 Pro models this year. This is the Snapdragon X75 modem, while the standard models retain the Snapdragon X70 modem instead. The X70 was also found in all iPhone 15 models. A separation would be a change in Apple’s strategy and would further differentiate the standard and Pro models from each other.
New Snapdragon X75 modem only on iPhone 16 Pro models
Announced in February 2023, the Snapdragon X75 features improved carrier aggregation compared to the X70. In addition, the Apple iPhone 16 generation should achieve even faster 5G download and upload speeds, as usual. In addition, the modem’s combined mmWave and sub-6GHz 5G transceiver is said to use 25% less space on the motherboard and up to 20% less power.
The Snapdragon X75 chip also supports the latest 5G Advanced standard, described as “the next phase of 5G” on the path towards 6G. In addition to the benefits of artificial intelligence, 5G Advanced is also intended to support machine learning. Additional device types and use cases are also planned. Apple had already advertised LTE Advanced on the iPhone 6s in 2015. Something similar could now happen with 5G Advanced and the iPhone 16 Pro models.
According to rumors, Apple has been working on its own 5G modem for its iPhones since 2018. However, the project reportedly faced greater technical challenges than expected. A release is now not expected until 2025 at the earliest, so Apple has also extended its 5G modem contract with Qualcomm until 2026.
