Apple announced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max on 9 September, with pre-orders from the 12th and shelves from the 18th. Both run the same A20 Pro chip and the same software. They however don’t run the same modem.
A modem is the part that connects a phone to the mobile network. It has nothing to do with photos or apps. It decides how well the phone holds a signal in a weak spot, and how much battery it burns doing it. That chip has nearly always been Qualcomm’s, apart from a stint between 2016 and 2020 when Intel supplied it. Apple then bought Intel’s modem business, and Qualcomm returned with the iPhone 12. In early 2025, Apple’s own silicon arrived with the C1 in the iPhone 16e, then the C1X.
The C2 is the third generation. Apple says it uses 15 percent less energy than the C1X, uploads meaningfully faster, and applies AI to cellular quality and reliability.
The C2 is in the iPhone 18 Pro worldwide. It is in the Pro Max worldwide too, except in the United States.
Apple’s own spec sheets proves this:
- On the UK listing and the UAE listing, both phones read “Apple C2 cellular modem”.
- On the US listing, only the Pro does. The Pro Max column names no modem at all.
- The American Pro, model A3472, also keeps LTE Band 106, a thin slice of 900MHz spectrum used for private networks run by American utility companies. The American Pro Max, model A3473, drops it.
The exact Qualcomm chip Apple is using is however a separate question. Going through the iOS 27 code, the tipster @itspdfu found that the US-only Pro Max carries the same radio identifier as the iPhone 17, 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max. That points at the Snapdragon X80, last year’s part, rather than this year’s X85. The iPhone 18 Pro Max is yet to ship. So no one has opened it up to check.
Apple did not explain why the difference. The likeliest answer is a contract. In September 2023 Qualcomm said it would supply Apple with 5G modems for smartphone launches in 2024, 2025 and 2026. One model, in one market, is about the smallest way to honour a 2026 commitment without handing Qualcomm real volume. Supply is the other theory, since the C2 also goes into the $1,999 iPhone Duo foldable.
So what does the American buyer lose for $1,299, a price that already went up after Apple raised every iPhone by $100? On raw speed, almost nothing. The X80 peaks at 10Gbps down against the X85’s 12.5Gbps. You don’t achieve either numbers with a real network. Efficiency is the only issue. On a phone rated for 45 hours of video playback, a modem drawing 15 percent less power makes some difference.
The bigger loss is a privacy feature that comes with the C2 modem. Limit Precise Location, added in iOS 26.3, stops your carrier from pinning you to a street address and gives it your neighbourhood instead. It only works on Apple’s own modems. Qualcomm silicon cannot do it. In the US, Boost Mobile is the one carrier that supports the setting, and the US-only 18 Pro Max cannot use it.
For Kenya, we are good this time. Most Kenyans will probably be getting the C2 modem as we import from different countries like Japan, UAE etc. At $1,299 the Pro Max is about KES 168,000 before shipping, duty and the margins that pushed iPhone 17 prices here well past the American figure. Whatever you end up paying, the modem inside is the better one.
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