The Apple N1 wireless chip is easy to overlook in the hoopla surrounding the new iPhone 17 series, but it’s an advancement in Apple’s drive to produce all its own silicon.
The new in-house chip handles Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and more, and Apple says it’ll improve the performance of Personal Hotspot and AirDrop.
N1 Wi-Fi chip joins the Apple silicon family
A few years ago, Apple outsourced most of its chips. Mac CPUs came from Intel, cellular modems came from Qualcomm, and other wireless chips were made by Broadcom. Those days are long over. Macs now run Apple M-series processors, while Apple is phasing in its C-series 5G cellular-wireless modems.
And the Apple N1 wireless chip now joins the list with the iPhone 17 family announced during Tuesday’s Awe Dropping product-launch event. It brings Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread support to the new iOS handsets.
The goal of Wi-Fi 7 is to make wireless connectivity more reliable so the computers that use it can transfer data at up to 2.4 Gbps. Of course, a wireless router that also supports Wi-Fi 7 is necessary for the best performance.
Bluetooth 6 promises better performance and power efficiency for the short-range wireless standard. And it features “true distance awareness,” which should make tracker tags like Apple AirTag easier to find.
Thread is a standard used by smartphone accessories to communicate. It’s supported by Apple’s HomeKit.
In addition, Apple says, “N1 improves the overall performance and reliability of features like Personal Hotspot and AirDrop.” Realistically though, what average users will want from the new Wi-Fi chip is for it to work as well as the Broadcom version in previous Apple computers.
The iPhone 17 series is surely only the start. Expect to see the N1 to be part of the M5-based iPad Pro when it launches next month, and the M5 MacBooks rumored for early 2026.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. He’s written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
