TechInsights opened an American iPhone 18 Pro Max and found Qualcomm's Snapdragon X80 inside it. The modem firmware points the same way. Apple's smaller iPhone 18 Pro runs the company's own C2 modem in every country, the iPhone Duo runs C2 in every country, and the Pro Max runs C2 in every country but this one.
Apple's specification page for the Pro Max left the modem line blank on announcement day, while the sheet for the smaller Pro named C2 and listed Band 106. Apple still has not explained why the American Pro Max is the exception, and it did not answer the question when the phones went on sale.
C2 is the first Apple design to carry mmWave, so an American buyer gets it this year whichever of the two Pro phones they pick, and whoever made the radio.
Qualcomm announced in 2023 that it would supply Apple with smartphone modems through 2026. This is 2026. The iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max carried this same Snapdragon X80 in every market last year. Now it survives in one.
Nobody has run C2 against the X80 yet, so there is no performance answer for a shopper. According to Apple, C2 covers sub-6GHz and mmWave 5G, uploads meaningfully faster than the C1X, and draws 15 percent less energy. The teardown also turned up a new Apple mmWave antenna module in the American Pro Max. Apple built the antenna and Qualcomm built the radio behind it.
Apple's first two modems, the C1 and the C1X, left mmWave out altogether. Qualcomm chips in every iPhone since the iPhone 12 had it. C2 is the first Apple design to carry mmWave, so an American buyer gets it this year whichever of the two Pro phones they pick, and whoever made the radio.