As is Apple’s typically strategy, this year’s iPhone will have the same outward appearance as last year’s model. Recent leaks seem to confirm that. Those leaks do, however, also point to a different logic board internally. One of these improvements should give the iPhone 6s double the LTE speeds compared to the iPhone 6.
According to 9to5Mac and images they were provided, the new iPhone logic board includes a Qualcomm MDM9635M chip. This chip, introduced in 2013, was designed to be backwards compatible with slower networks while still supporting newer LTE options. All of this is in a design that is also supposed to optimize power usage. For iPhone users, this can mean improved battery life, though with the current iPhone 6 battery life, we can also assume Apple will put those savings into powering some other new feature.
In terms of speeds, the chip has a potential download speed of 300 Mbps thanks to LTE Advanced. Upload speeds are no slouch, either, at 50 Mbps. In real world situations, users should expect to see download speeds closer to 225 Mbps. That’s still faster than what users typically would see at home on their wifi. Of course, even in areas where there is no LTE Advanced coverage, users can still get great speeds thanks to support of dual carrier HSUPA and dual band multi-carrier HSPA+.
