This year’s latest iPhones featured a significant transformation that signified a new chapter in the progression of Apple Silicon: the Apple N1, Apple’s initial proprietary chip designed for managing local wireless connections. The N1 is compatible with Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and the Thread smart home communication standard, replacing the third-party wireless chips (mostly produced by Broadcom) utilized in previous iPhones.
Apple asserted that the N1 would facilitate more dependable connectivity for local communication features like AirPlay and AirDrop but did not provide specifics on performance expectations for users. However, Ookla, the team behind the SpeedTest application and website, has assessed approximately five weeks’ worth of user testing data to evaluate how the iPhone 17 series compares to the iPhone 16 as well as Android devices equipped with Wi-Fi chips from Qualcomm, MediaTek, and others.
Though the N1 does not rank at the highest on the charts, Ookla reports that Apple’s Wi-Fi chip “provided higher download and upload speeds on Wi-Fi when compared to the iPhone 16 across all studied percentiles and nearly every region.” The median download speed for the iPhone 17 lineup reached 329.56Mbps, whereas the iPhone 16 had a download speed of 236.46Mbps; the upload speed also climbed from 73.68Mbps to 103.26Mbps.
Ookla observed that the N1’s optimal performance appeared to enhance results most significantly in the lowest 10th percentile of performance tests, “suggesting Apple’s custom silicon elevates the baseline more than the peak.” The iPhone 17 did not lead Ookla’s global performance rankings—Ookla discovered that the Pixel 10 Pro series slightly surpasses the iPhone 17 in download speed, while a Xiaomi 15T Pro featuring MediaTek Wi-Fi silicon demonstrated superior upload speeds.
