Inside Apple’s splashy iPhone 17 lineup is a new chip: the N1. It’s a wireless networking chip made in-house by Apple, allowing its devices to support the latest networking technologies, including Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and the smart home protocol Thread.
Apple previously used chips made by Broadcom to power Bluetooth and Wi-Fi within its smartphones. But now, Apple says the N1 chip will help boost the performance and reliability of features like AirDrop and Personal Hotspot. The iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, as well as the iPhone Air, will all ship with the N1.
In addition to the N1, Apple revealed its next-gen C1X 5G modem, offering twice the speed of the C1 chip it launched with the iPhone 16E. The N1 and C1X join the growing list of in-house silicon developed by Apple, which also includes its line of processors made for the iPhone, Mac, the Apple Watch, and AirPods.
