Iphone 12 May Use Custom 5G Antenna With Qualcomm Modems

After settling its legal fight with Qualcomm last year and securing a 5G chip supply for its 2020 iPhones, things seemed to be looking up for Apple bringing the next-gen cellular standard to its iPhone 12 lineup. However, a new report today says that Apple isn’t satisfied with Qualcomm’s antenna designed to work with its 5G chips and that it may make its own… for this fall’s iPhones.

Fast Company‘s anonymous source says that Qualcomm’s QTM 525 5G antenna wouldn’t work with the planned thickness of Apple’s 2020 iPhones.

But even though Apple is reportedly working on its own 5G antenna to work with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X55 5G chip, the source told Fast Company that Apple still could fall back and use Qualcomm’s 5G antenna.

Noted by Fast Company, Apple has a messy history with designing its own antennas, like the iPhone 4 and the “antennagate” that ensued. With how big the 5G debut is expected to be, this would be a rough time for a similar scenario. And what’s more, Fast Company‘s source detailed that 5G antennas are trickier than 4G ones.

Beyond Apple wanting to keep its 2020 iPhones from becoming thicker due to Qualcomm’s 5G antenna, another reason it may be wanting to make its own could be some bad blood left over from its lawsuit with Qualcomm.