Dual-Deal Backfires on Apple as Not All iPhone 7 Perform Equally

Not long after the latest Apple mobile phone hit the streets, people started to complain about a poor performance on the iPhone 7 while other people couldn’t reproduce the issue at all. The reason for this is the dual-deal Apple struck with Qualcomm and Intel to have them both provide chips for the new phone rather than getting them from Qualcomm alone as they’ve done in the past. The idea is good, get chips from two parties to lessen the strain on the production line – but it’s only great if the two perform equally.

And they do not perform equally. Normally when we think of connectivity and performance, we think of Intel and you’d think that it would be the stronger chip – but it isn’t. A new report from Cellular Insights in which they have tested the performance of various modem chips with LTE connections shows that there is a significant performance difference between the two chips.

The tests showed that Qualcomm’s chip was an average of 30% faster than Intel’s and in some cases even up to 75% faster. That is a big difference and it explains why some iPhone 7 will perform great while other have a sub-par performance. While Cellular Insights only tested the iPhone 7 Plus models, it seems to apply to the normal 7’s too.

Now you probably wonder how you can spot which chip is inside the iPhone in order to get the best choice and straight up there is no difference – logically. However, it should be possible to find out by the model number on the back of the device. If it is a Model A16600 or A1661 then it is one of the faster ones with Qualcomm processor and if it is a Model A1778 or A1784, then it is one with the slower Intel chip.

Neither Intel nor Apple has released a statement on the issue yet, but we can be sure that they’re working on something behind the lines and trying to find a fix for the poor performance.