Apple spent a lot of time during its It's Glowtime event talking about the new iPhone 16 Pro model But the company did not talk about the 5G modem That's surprising, since according to the first round of network tests, it appears to be a significant upgrade over the one on the iPhone 15 Pro

According to tests conducted by SpeedSmart (via 9To5Mac), the iPhone 16 Pro's 5G download speeds are up to 26% faster than the previous generation Speed results vary by carrier, but the Qualcomm Snapdragon X75 modem in the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max resulted in significant speed gains on even the slowest of the three major networks

“Both T-Mobile and Verizon showed strong network performance with the new iPhones, with average download speeds exceeding 400 Mbps, and these speeds will improve further as T-Mobile's 5G UC and Verizon's UW coverage continue to expand will likely improve even further

AT&T also saw a 257% increase in 5G download speeds with the new iPhone,” SpeedSmart said

Upload speeds also improved in tests, with faster connections on the Pro model In addition, the Snapdragon X75 modem also showed a marked improvement in upload speeds, an often overlooked but important metric: “Across all three networks, upload speeds improved by 221%, with average speeds comfortably above 30 Mbps” SpeedSmart reports

Unfortunately, the iPhone 16 appears to be using an older Qualcomm X70 modem We contacted Apple to confirm which modem is on the iPhone

Apple currently uses Qualcomm's 5G modem in its phones, but industry analysts have suggested that the company is working on its own device to replace it This makes sense since the company already offers its own A-series processors It would be logical to use a third-party modem and avoid locking the iPhone device completely into Apple's hardware

Once we get a review model of the iPhone 16 Pro, we can thoroughly test connectivity, and based on this initial testing, speeds look promising Until then, check out our hands-on review of the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max for our first impressions