iPhone 12: Apple doesn’t find Qualcomm’s 5G antenna impressive, may be a backup

Apple was not sure about the QTM 525 millimeter-wave antenna module that was offered by the chip maker as it failed to fit in the ‘sleek’ profile of the upcoming iPhone that Apple is planning to create.

A man takes a photograph using his iPhone of members of the public entering an Apple store. (Reuters)

Apple already makes its own customised chipsets for the iPhones and now it is planning to create its own antenna for the rumoured 'iPhone 12'. As Fast Company website notes, Apple was not sure about the QTM 525 millimeter-wave antenna module that was offered by the chip maker as it failed to fit in the 'sleek' profile of the upcoming iPhone that Apple is planning to create. However, Qualcomm will still be offering its Snapdragon X55 5G modem for the new iPhones as per the report. Mind you, these are the same 5G modems that are used in the recently launched Samsung Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20 Plus and Galaxy S20 Ultra smartphones.

How will Apple's own antenna turn out to be, is nothing but a mere guess for now. However, it still required closely working with Qualcomm as the antennas are supposed to work with the Snapdragon X55. But Apple has not yet ruled out Qualcomm's antenna offering from the plans just yet. It is working on that as well and could default to that option later this year. However, this is said to make the iPhones slightly thicker than what they are right now. And as Qualcomm has said in its blog post, its QTM525 5G mmWave antenna module is designed to work on handsets sleeker than 8mm thickness.

If Apple is making its own antennas, it won't be the first time ever as we have seen the firm bringing its own antennas ever since the iPhone 4. However, it is not the best in class when it comes to antennas that are required for mmwave 5G devices.

As mentioned, the 5G iPhone may use 'phased array' antenna that has two parts but work together to form a single beam of radio signal. And both the parts coming from two different companies will leave a very less room for errors. But if only something goes wrong, Apple can always fall on Qualcomm's 5G chip+antenna solution.