Overview

• Early teardowns by repair specialist Ycs Yang posted on Bilibili and shared via Reddit identify the Snapdragon X80 in the iPhone 17 Pro Max and point to the same chip in the 17 and 17 Pro.
• The Snapdragon X80 supports 5G Advanced and features an on-chip AI accelerator designed to improve speeds, latency, coverage, and power efficiency.
• U.S. models of the iPhone 17 lineup include mmWave capability, while the iPhone Air’s in-house C1X modem is limited to sub-6GHz 5G.
• Qualcomm has introduced the successor X85 modem, and CEO Cristiano Amon has said Android phones using it would show a large performance delta versus current iPhones.
• Real-world benefits of mmWave remain limited in countries without deployments, such as Canada, due to carrier and regulatory timelines.