Expected in 2019, the iPhone XI will be equipped with new antennas to improve their reliability but also their indoor reception. Attention, this change could concern only the models which will leave in 2019.
When it comes to collecting reliable information on the next iPhone, it is to Ming-Chi Kuo that we must turn. This consultant in finance, which has its sources at Apple and its suppliers, teaches us via 9To5Mac that the firm has decided to give special attention to antennas of its upcoming models.
We may not know it but the iPhone the most recent released in 2018, like the iPhone XR, have six antennas, all designed polymer crystal liquid (PCL). They are fragile, and they could alter the quality of reception over time. The idea would be to replace some of them with modified polyimide ( PI ) components, which are more enduring and more efficient. Kuo evokes the presence of four antennas in modified IP and two in LCP for the iPhone XI expected in 2019.
Are you looking for 2020?
For Apple, the interest would be twofold. First, there are more antennas manufacturers of this new type, and it would allow him, of course, to negotiate better for his supplies. Attention all the same since their cost is higher: between 10 and 20% more expensive. Then, these antennas promise better network coverage, and more specifically indoors.
However, this choice should not be generalized since this analyst predicts that the iPhone coming out in 2020 will be exclusively equipped with liquid crystal polymer antennas so that it would be a step backward. The reason for this flip-flop? The arrival of 5G.