Apple industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says the 5G-capable iPhone 12 may not support 2×2 uplink as initially expected.
The TF Securities’ analyst said in June 2019 that the 5G iPhone would significantly benefit WIN SEMI and Broadcom, with the devices featuring six power amplifiers for 5G networking.
However, Kuo has now backed off from those claims and now expects the iPhone 12 to include only one or two amplifiers. Due to this change, Kuo no longer expects the new iPhone lineup to support 2 x 2 MIMO uplink.
While this would reduce the theoretical maximum upload speed, the limitation may not be noticed in real-world usage by customers, depending on the carrier infrastructure. Most 5G rollouts are relatively new, meaning a user with a 2 x 2 MIMO uplink capable device would see no noticeable difference in real-world upload speeds.
(Via 9to5Mac)