The Wi-Fi chip in a phone is one of those things that’s easy to miss, but a new study indicates Apple’s N1 chip is a bigger upgrade than you might think.
The N1 chip was first announced alongside the iPhone Air as part of Apple’s “Awe Dropping” event. However, there was some trepidation about Apple’s move to an in-house developed Wi-Fi chip. According to a report from network specialists Ookla, it reveals that there’s a pretty substantial speed boost upgrade over the older models.
The report details that the N1 chip delivers “material performance improvements over predecessors, pushing it ahead of many Android flagship devices in Wi-Fi.” This conclusion was reached after measuring its own “global, crowdsourced Speedtest Intelligence data from the six weeks after the iPhone 17 family of devices hit stores.”
Best picks for you
What do the results say
(Image credit: Ookla)
According to the report, the iPhone 17 series with the N1 chip offers up to 40% higher upload and download speeds compared to the iPhone 16. For reference, Apple’s prior device used the Broadcom-manufactured Wi-Fi chips. So, if you happen to use Wi-Fi a lot, then you will see a noticeable difference when downloading documents to uploading a TikTok.
It wasn’t just speed that saw an improvement, as the N1 also offered other generational improvements. For instance, when comparing the 10th percentile (meaning the lowest 10% of all results) the iPhone 17 showed impressive progress compared to the iPhone 16.
(Image credit: Ookla)
As Ookla notes, this implies that “Apple’s custom silicon lifts the floor more than the ceiling.” It’s colorful language, but basically infers that the N1 chip offers better speeds in most scenarios. This is especially true in more challenging Wi-Fi situations, where the N1’s 10th percentile speeds were 60% higher than the iPhone 16 series.
What about iPhone vs Android
It gets a bit trickier when comparing the iPhone 17 series to some of the best Android phones. According to Ookla, the iPhone 17 series is in the closest competition with the Google Pixel 10 Pro, with the latter recording the higher global median download speed. However, the iPhone 17 offers faster speeds in the 10th percentile, indicating better performance when in weaker Wi-Fi areas.
Samsung’s Galaxy S25 series, meanwhile, didn’t lead outright in any metric at the global level, but did maintain the upper-mid pack across most. However, it showed the strongest results in latency, where it delivered the best case response times in the U.S., Europe and the Gulf region.
Overall, Apple’s N1 chip is performing better than many might have thought and it’s a good sign for future Apple-designed silicon.
Follow Tom’s Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds.
More from Tom’s Guide
Today’s best Apple iPhone 17 deals
