5G iPhones not happening next year: Report

5G is considered the next big thing in the smartphone industry and several major names from the Android universe have already jumped in on the bandwagon with 5G-ready smartphones waiting to go on sale within the next few months. Therefore, you would also expect the Apple — the world’s coolest technology brand, to be amongst the early adopters of the faster spectrum. Sadly, that won’t be the case.

A recent report from Fast Company states that Apple’s next-generation iPhones won’t be featuring support for 5G spectrum. Apple is relying on Intel’s chips for bringing 5G to their stable as the spat with Qualcomm last year resulted in the former looking to reduce its dependence on the latter.

However, Intel’s 5G modem for smartphones isn’t reportedly fairing well with Apple’s expectations. Apple is presently testing several prototypes with the Intel 8060 modem chips and has ruled out using it on the next iPhones due to issues regarding heat dissipation and power consumption. Therefore, the company will rather skip 5G next year and could opt for Intel’s 8161 modems for its 2020 batch of iPhones.

If Intel’s modem doesn’t get prepared by the 2020 batch of iPhones, Apple is believed to have been directed MediaTek for supplying 5G modems for their smartphones. However, none of this information has been confirmed by Apple as of now.

With the infrastructure under construction, manufacturers are getting ready to embrace 5G technology on smartphones, with Xiaomi already been confirming a 5G Mi MIX 3 and Samsung rumoured to debut the Galaxy S10 with soon-to-be-launched Snapdragon 8150 chip.