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Partly because it was about a month later than usual, the iPhone 12 series, which had been waiting for a long time, was finally announced. Since the details of the terminal have already been published in the article, I would like you to read it, but here I will try to understand the impact of the iPhone 12 from the author’s point of view.
The previous leak is the announcement of Apple’s new product, which can be said to be a tradition, but I have the impression that there was little definitive information and many errors about what will happen with 5G support. When I opened the lid, all models, including the iPhone 12 mini, are 5G compatible. Furthermore, all four models supported not only Sub-6, which has a frequency close to 4G, but also millimeter waves, which have extremely high frequencies. However, there was a joke that the millimeter wave was just the American version …
In short, millimeter waves are frequencies that have a wavelength of 10 mm or less at 30 GHz or more. Strictly speaking, it is above the 30GHz band, but in 5G it is called millimeter wave, which refers to the vicinity of it. In Japan, the frequency of the 28 GHz band is currently assigned to four companies: Docomo, KDDI, Softbank and Rakuten Mobile.
The characteristic of radio waves is that the higher the frequency, the closer the characteristics are to the light, so millimeter waves are vulnerable to obstacles. In fact, when I was demonstrating a communication experiment at an event like MWC, I tried to put a hand between the terminal and the base station antenna, but the speed dropped as soon as I saw it. The 800MHz band and the 900MHz band are sometimes referred to as the “platinum band” due to the ease of construction of the area, but the opposite is the millimeter wave.
So the reason we bother to use such a frequency band is that we can take a wide bandwidth. Likewise, the communication speed will increase at the same time. Even on the iPhone 12 series, the CEO of the US company Verizon, who took the stage at the event, made a big call for the “4Gbps” downlink speed. Even in Japan, in the case of Docomo, the maximum downlink speed is 4.1 Gbps when using millimeter waves, but the theoretical value drops to 3.4 Gbps when using only Sub-6.
Sub-6 is only fast enough, but if it’s a crowded place like a stadium and the visibility from the base station is good, the millimeter wave will come into play. As one of the use cases for 5G smartphones, I think there are many opportunities to see services like supplementing with multi-angle images while watching sports locally, but it is useful in those places. It is a millimeter wave. At the Apple recital, the Verizon CEO was pushing images from multiple angles (laughs).
However, as mentioned above, radio waves do not fly easily, so the reception sensitivity on the terminal side also needs to be improved considerably. It was sometimes said that it would be unrealistic to use millimeter waves in a small device like a smartphone. In fact, at the Qualcom event, which provides Apple with 5G modems, etc., the difficulty of mounting antennas and the company’s solution to fix it was often presented.
This is probably why the iPhone 12 series only supports millimeter waves in the United States. If you look closely, only the US version has button-sized parts, like resin, attached to the lower right of the main body. The ability to view the new iPhone as an AR object is available on the Web, but the Japanese iPhone 12 series does not. At first glance, it looks like a fingerprint sensor, but it doesn’t have that function. Considering the functional difference between Japan and the United States and the millimeter wave characteristics, it is likely that it is an antenna.
However, even if it is for millimeter waves, the sense of unity of the frame will be affected. The colors are the same, but the texture is different from metal, so even AR objects can’t hide it. For Apple, which has a strong commitment to design, it may have been a difficult decision. However, some carriers in the United States seem to require manufacturers to support millimeter waves. So I assume that only the US version supports millimeter waves, but the antenna design (cry) is different.
From the specs, it’s easy to think that the US version is ugly, but personally, the stainless steel (in the case of the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max) that sells that beautiful shine has parts that look like foreign substances. It is not convincing that it will increase. In Japan, the 5G area is currently quite limited, and there are only a few places where you can catch millimeter waves, so I think it was pretty good to give up the answer this time.
Only Sub-6, but the price of the iPhone 12 mini is the same as the iPhone 11, and there was no big price increase. Also, all chipset models are “A14 Bionic”. Considering the high processing power, display performance, and 5G support, it seems like a good deal. In terms of the price range, Apple’s seriousness has been conveyed by just adding a little to the medium-high Android. As the area expands I have a feeling it will turn into a 5G killer terminal.
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・ Summary of “iPhone 12” that can be understood in 5 minutes. 4 models of mini, Pro, Max and unmarked are now available, all models are 5G compatible
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