Apple’s full iPhone 17 line and the iPhone Air include the company’s brand new N1 wireless networking chip. In a new interview with CNBC, the company has explained the N1’s unique advantages in greater depth than before.
N1 enables a variety of feature and efficiency improvements across iPhone 17 lineup
When Apple launched its latest iPhone lineup, one common feature across every model was the N1 wireless networking chip.
N1 is Apple’s in-house solution for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Thread.
Essentially, N1 is for wireless connectivity what Apple’s C1 and C1X modems are for 5G cellular connectivity. It’s Apple taking another big step toward controlling the full stack of silicon in its products.
When the iPhone 17 line was unveiled, Apple detailed the following advantages of C1:
The iPhone 17 lineup also introduces N1, a new Apple-designed wireless networking chip that enables Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread. In addition to powering the latest generation of wireless technologies, N1 improves the overall performance and reliability of features like Personal Hotspot and AirDrop.
Personal Hotspot and AirDrop improvements are two major upgrades with N1.
Both features can feel like magic when they work reliably. And most of the time they do. But that reliability can make the occasional issues all the more frustrating.
N1 promises to make each feature even more performant than ever.
But per a new interview at CNBC, Apple says N1’s benefits go even further.
Tim Millet, VP of Platform Architecture:
“We are able to co-design our SoC, A19 Pro, with N1 to build power management capabilities that allow us to keep the application processor, the big SoC A19 Pro, mostly asleep while the wireless is running. But quietly we can build in co-designed interfaces into that N1 that allow us to do processing on the SoC at extremely low energy for background tasks. So we can be, for example, allowing the device to sort of track location with high accuracy so your device can be more intelligent about where you are.”
Arun Mathias, VP of Wireless Software Technologies and Ecosystems:
“One of the things people may not realize is that your Wi-Fi access points actually contribute to your device’s awareness of location, so you don’t need to use GPS, which actually costs more from a power perspective,” Mathias said. “By being able to do this more seamlessly in the background, not needing to wake up the application processor as much, we can do that significantly more efficiently.”
Power efficiency was clearly very important for the iPhone Air, but it apparently helped contribute to battery increases in iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max too.
Rumors indicate the N1 is also coming to two Apple Home products soon with potentially even more benefits.
It’s early days still with the N1, but it seems like this new wireless chip could make a big impact in the years ahead.
Have you noticed any positive or negative changes in wireless connectivity using the N1? Let us know in the comments.
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