The iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max feature Qualcomm's Snapdragon X65 modem for faster 5G speeds, lower power consumption, and improved mmWave support on U.S. models, according to a teardown of the devices shared on YouTube today.
The X65 chip can be seen on the logic board in a teardown of the iPhone 14 Pro. We're still in the process of confirming whether the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus also have the X65, but all models within a series typically share the same modem.
iPhone 14 Pro teardown confirms the inclusion of Qualcomm's X65 modem
Qualcomm announced the X65 modem in February 2021 with power efficiency improvements, resulting in improved battery life while using 5G. In addition, the X65 modem is the world's first 10 Gigabit 5G modem and antenna system for smartphones, enabling theoretical data speeds up to 10 gigabits per second. In May 2021, Qualcomm updated its X65 Snapdragon modem with wider mmWave spectrum support.
The power efficiency improvements of both the X65 modem and A16 Bionic chip contribute to longer battery life on iPhone 14 Pro models. A battery test earlier this week claimed that the iPhone 14 Pro Max lasted two hours longer than the iPhone 13 Pro Max from last year. The iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max are now starting to arrive to customers.
Friday December 12, 2025 10:56 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Macworld's Filipe Espósito today revealed a handful of features that Apple is allegedly planning for iOS 26.4, iOS 27, and even iOS 28.
The report said the features are referenced within the code for a leaked internal build of iOS 26 that is not meant to be seen by the public. However, it appears that Espósito and/or his sources managed to gain access to it, providing us with a sneak peek...
Monday December 15, 2025 2:05 pm PST by Juli Clover
Last week, details about unreleased Apple devices and future iOS features were shared by Macworld. This week, we learned where the information came from, plus we have more findings from the leak.
As it turns out, an Apple prototype device running an early build of iOS 26 was sold, and the person who bought it shared the software. The OS has a version number of 23A5234w, and the first...
The first foldable iPhone will feature a series of design and hardware firsts for Apple, according to details shared by the Weibo leaker known as Digital Chat Station.
According to a new post, via machine translation, Apple is developing what the leaker describes as a "wide foldable" device, a term used to refer to a horizontally oriented, book-style foldable with a large internal display....
Monday December 15, 2025 3:05 pm PST by Juli Clover
Software from an iPhone prototype running an early build of iOS 26 leaked last week, giving us a glimpse at future Apple devices and iOS features. We recapped device codenames in our prior article, and now we have a list of some of the most notable feature flags that were found in the software code.
In some cases, it's obvious what the feature flags are referring to, while some are more...
Friday December 12, 2025 10:10 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released iOS 26.2, the second major update to the iOS 26 operating system that came out in September, iOS 26.2 comes a little over a month after iOS 26.1 launched. iOS 26.2 is compatible with the iPhone 11 series and later, as well as the second-generation iPhone SE.
The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones over-the-air by going to Settings >...
Thursday December 11, 2025 8:49 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple seeded the second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to developers earlier this week, meaning the update will be released to the general public very soon.
Apple confirmed iOS 26.2 would be released in December, but it did not provide a specific date. We expect the update to be released by early next week.
iOS 26.2 includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, such as a new...
Friday December 12, 2025 10:08 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released macOS Tahoe 26.2, the second major update to the macOS Tahoe operating system that came out in September. macOS Tahoe 26.2 comes five weeks after Apple released macOS Tahoe 26.1.
Mac users can download the macOS Tahoe update by using the Software Update section of System Settings.
macOS Tahoe 26.2 includes Edge Light, a feature that illuminates your face with soft...
Monday December 15, 2025 7:41 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple released the AirPods Max on December 15, 2020, meaning the over-ear headphones launched five years ago today. While the AirPods Max were updated with a USB-C port and new color options last year, followed by support for lossless audio and ultra-low latency audio this year, the headphones lack some of the features that have been introduced for newer generations of the regular AirPods and the ...
Don’t think i saw any reviewer speak about improved signal unfortunately. Battery gains are nice but man apple needs to sprinkle some magic on those antennas.
The X65 is actually a big deal. Not for top theoretical speeds, but it’s much better at aggregating different channels to achieve higher speeds if the cellular site and provider support it.
But the feature I’m most excited about is its ability to use AI to eke out the most from a weak signal. As shown in the article below, the X65 modem has the ability to get over 4 times the throughput with a medium to very weak signal compared to the X60 modem.
I believe Qualcomm sells the modem along with an antenna system. However, I’m not sure the apple uses their antenna system. So if not the performance probably isn’t quite as good as the s22 but should still see improvements over the 13.
I am, and sometimes it's noticeably better, but mainly because on my carrier in Canada in busy areas sometimes the 4G LTE is congested.
What our big three Canadian carriers do is reserve 5G for their main brand, but put the cheaper brands on 4G LTE. This along with the fact that a lot of the installed base isn't on 5G yet means that the 5G service is a lot less congested.
It's not about max download speed though. It's about reliability and reduced lag.
When I got my 13 ProMax last year I noticed a significant improvement overmy 12 ProMax LTE modem. We also live in area of town where the cell signals vary between 1-2 bars in my yard and usually 1 in house with aluminum siding and all. With last years Qualcomm modem I was getting 2 to 3 bars outside sometimes. (Still mostly 2 but better) and 1-2 bars inside. So I saw a major improvement in going to 5G for me I suppose even with weaker signal strength this tower on edge of town had less on 5G vs LTE?
