Here's Why Apple's iPhone SE Doesn't Have the Fastest 5G

The new iPhone SE has a powerful A15 processor and real 5G, but it's missing one key part of the 5G equation: millimeter-wave. As Apple's support site shows, none of the five global models of the iPhone SE have the high-band 5G system that, until now, Verizon required.

The reasons likely center around cost and Verizon's much-ballyhooed new C-band 5G network, which means that the carrier can finally let go of its high-band requirement on lower-end phones.

Until now, there's been one giant wireless carrier that's required millimeter-wave in many phones: Verizon. And Apple wouldn't want to alienate Verizon.

But Verizon is changing. It has shifted focus from mmWave to its new sub-6GHz C-band network, which has the same "ultra wideband" branding as mmWave, but much better range. The iPhone SE supports C-band, so iPhone SE units will use Verizon's new less-congested airwaves, pop that "5G UW" indicator in their status bar, and have speeds much faster than 4G.

The SE is the first Verizon phone to have C-band but not mmWave, but I don't think it's going to be the last. Phone makers know they can provide less expensive devices by eliminating mmWave, and there are two ways the iPhone shows that.

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Old Body, Not New Frequencies

This year's iPhone SE costs $429, $30 more than previous models. Is that about 5G, the global chipset shortage, factoring in the loss of the Russian market, or something else? Who knows?

But it's also widely known that mmWave 5G tends to pump up the price of phones. Millimeter-wave versions of phones that also have non-mmWave versions, such as the Google Pixels, have tended to cost around $100 more at retail than the non-mmWave versions. Verizon has some lower-cost mmWave phones, but it's not clear if Verizon is swallowing some of that cost to get people onto its network.

That said, Apple is the world's hardest bargainer when it comes to its suppliers, and it has its own millimeter-wave module design. It doesn't have to buy antennas from Qualcomm. I'm not convinced it wouldn't have been able to make some wild deal if it felt it needed to include mmWave in its latest phone.

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Apple would also have had to re-engineer its case design, increasing the cost. The iPhone 8 body on which the SE is built has no room for mmWave antenna modules. Sub-6GHz 5G can be run on a phone's existing antenna system, but millimeter-wave needs special new modules (ideally, four of them) that look like little rectangles.

You can put mmWave modules into the sides of a phone, like on the iPhone 12/13 and Samsung Galaxy S22, or into the back. But a glass-and-aluminum back like the iPhone SE's would require windows to be cut into it for the new mmWave modules, and additional space to be made in the case for them.

So with nobody really demanding mmWave anymore, and the technology adding cost to Apple's lowest-cost product, Apple decided to leave it on the table. If you want high-band 5G in a small iPhone, Apple will point out, there's a perfect answer for that: The $599 iPhone 12 mini or the $699 iPhone 13 mini.

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