Apple’s N1 Chip Improves Wi-Fi Performance

Reporting on data gleaned from Ookla’s Speedtest Intelligence, Luke Kehoe writes:

Apple’s N1 chipset is a substantial upgrade. The iPhone 17 family delivers a clear step-change in Wi-Fi performance vs. the Broadcom-based iPhone 16 lineup, with faster download and upload speeds across every region. Globally, median download and upload speeds on the N1 were each up to 40% higher than on its predecessor.

Introduced in the iPhone 17 lineup, Apple’s custom N1 wireless networking chip combines Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Thread radios. Apple has said very little about the N1, with the most loquacious statement appearing on the M5 iPad Pro press release:

The new iPad Pro also features N1, a new Apple-designed wireless networking chip that enables Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread. N1 brings better performance when connected to 5GHz networks, and improves the overall performance and reliability of features like Personal Hotspot and AirDrop.

Other descriptions, such as on the iPhone 17 press release, say only that it “improves the overall performance and reliability of features like Personal Hotspot and AirDrop.”

Ookla’s data, however, shows that the N1 provides up to 40% better Wi-Fi performance than the Broadcom-supplied Wi-Fi radio in the iPhone 16 lineup. More importantly, the N1’s biggest wins occur when Wi-Fi connectivity is poor: download speeds at the 10th percentile improve by roughly 60%, while the 90th percentile sees a bit over 20%.

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