Apple’s N1 Wi-Fi Chip Outperforms Broadcom in Every Test
▼ Summary
– Apple introduced its first in-house wireless chip, the N1, in the newest iPhones, replacing third-party chips from companies like Broadcom.
– The N1 chip supports Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and the Thread smart home protocol, enhancing local wireless connectivity.
– Ookla’s analysis showed the iPhone 17 with the N1 chip achieved higher Wi-Fi download and upload speeds compared to the iPhone 16 across all percentiles and regions.
– The N1 chip significantly improved performance in the bottom 10th percentile, indicating it raises the minimum performance more than the peak.
– Despite improvements, the iPhone 17 did not lead global performance charts, being slightly outperformed by the Pixel 10 Pro in download speed and a Xiaomi model in upload speed.
The latest iPhones introduced a significant shift in Apple’s hardware strategy with the debut of the Apple N1, the company’s first proprietary wireless chip designed to manage Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Thread protocols. This move replaces previous reliance on third-party suppliers like Broadcom, signaling Apple’s deepening commitment to controlling core technologies across its devices.
Apple initially highlighted that the N1 would improve reliability for services such as AirDrop and AirPlay, though the company did not provide specific performance benchmarks. Independent analysis from Ookla, the organization behind Speedtest, has now filled that gap. By examining roughly five weeks of real-world user data, Ookla compared the iPhone 17 models equipped with the N1 to their iPhone 16 predecessors and various Android competitors using Wi-Fi chips from Qualcomm and MediaTek.
According to the findings, Apple’s Wi-Fi chip delivered higher download and upload speeds on Wi-Fi compared to the iPhone 16 across every studied percentile and virtually every region. The median download speed for the iPhone 17 series reached 329.56Mbps, a notable increase from the 236.46Mbps recorded for the iPhone 16. Upload performance saw a similar boost, climbing from 73.68Mbps to 103.26Mbps.
One of the most telling observations from the data is that the N1’s most pronounced impact appears in the lower performance tiers. Ookla reported that the chip’s best performance improvements were seen in the bottom 10th percentile of tests, suggesting that Apple’s custom silicon lifts the floor more than the ceiling. This means users with weaker signal conditions are likely to experience a more substantial upgrade in connectivity stability and speed.
Despite these gains, the iPhone 17 did not claim the top spot in Ookla’s global performance rankings. The analysis found that Google’s Pixel 10 Pro series slightly outperformed the iPhone 17 in download speeds, while the Xiaomi 15T Pro, equipped with MediaTek’s Wi-Fi silicon, achieved higher upload speeds. This indicates that while Apple’s first-generation N1 chip represents a major step forward in internal component design, the competitive landscape for wireless performance remains tightly contested.
(Source: Ars Technica)
