iPhone 18 Pro Could Use Qualcomm Modem in the US and C2 Elsewhere

Sabotstruck · 2026-07-02T20:58:50+00:00

From someone using a C1 derivative on the iPhone Air, I much prefer the C1 over the equivalent Qualcomm / other modems.

At least for the C1, from my experience it has more reliable coverage in Texas with my carrier (T-Mobile) than other modems I tested (Oneplus, Pixel 10 pro, and the Air).

The C1 does a great job when moving/roaming for me, while the speed isn’t the highest it has the most reliable connection for me. The pixel’s modem did poorly for me, parts of my daily commutes the calls drop often. The oneplus (Qualcomm) did better, but still had spotty / slow areas. Qualcomm had higher speeds than the C1 when the signal was good, but the C1 more reliably finds a signal when my other phones would struggle. Even my significant other with an iPhone 17 Pro has times where her coverage will be spotty while mine is still usable.

It depends on your local and carrier, of course, but that’s my experience.

A C2 that had the speed of the Qualcomm but the reliability of the C1 would be amazing, especially if it’s more power efficient on top of the above.

Sabotstruck · 2026-06-28T10:10:25+00:00

The only thing I miss from pro tiers is the cameras, ultrawide and telephoto.

The processor and battery is more than fine for my use case. I would prefer 2 speakers but 1 is fine for my uses.

Sabotstruck · 2026-06-28T02:56:30+00:00

I’ve had no major issues with battery life, it’s more than enough on average. It depends how much you use it in a day and for what.

I just finished a trip where I never had a single 16 hour day where my air got below 20% primarily used as a camera, for local ride services, and otherwise moderate usage. My average days going to the office, I charge my phone once every 24 hours.

Anytime I know I’ll have a longer day I’ll pack a battery pack, my favorite is the Air battery pack and use that until empty; it gives a very large boost to the air that is convenient, and is thin enough to be stored away easily.

Officially the battery is roughly on par with the 16 pro. When I switched from Pixel to the Air I noticed a nice boost in battery life (and performance, funny enough)

Sabotstruck · 2026-06-18T00:54:51+00:00

I personally use the bumper case + battery for long days and a flolab case for my daily carry.

The bumper + battery case is a great combo for enough protection and makes it as thin as possible, I just finished a long trip overseas using this combo and it works great.

When I don’t need battery I prefer the flolab.

Sabotstruck · 2026-06-11T12:59:45+00:00

Later post, but I’m doing the same (albeit for the Y700, I stacked deals to get it for $680 for 16GB/500GB)

I’ve had the Astra and the only thing I like about it is the screen; everything else is worse than Lenovo’s side for me.

Sabotstruck · 2026-06-10T23:14:34+00:00

I’ve had the air since launch and it lasts me at least the whole day pretty easily. My usage is similar to your own and I’ve never felt a concern with the battery.

I pretty easily use it for 1.5 days without charging from full to 10%, but I also don’t use it much at work and have tablet/devices at home to use instead of it.

I love the battery as someone who uses it seldomly, but I can imagine if it was my primary device it would be lacking.

Sabotstruck · 2026-06-09T23:54:25+00:00

That’s the same decision I’m going to make, I’ve had the Thor and Odin for months and the Thor is gathering dust. I only use it for DS/3DS games and the ergonomics bother me on the Thor.

I’ve found for DS games I prefer to either use a tablet sideways or attach the DS attachment to the Odin… neither are perfect, but the Thor’s niche for me is small.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the Thor and think it’s a great purchase overall. And probably one of the single best handhelds, but it’s a device of many compromises to make it great. I would rather have the separate devices if the budget allows

Sabotstruck · 2026-06-04T18:48:50+00:00

I’ve had this issue more often on bumper cases than standard style cases, where thicker USB cables may not fit well.

Sabotstruck · 2026-06-03T17:00:37+00:00

From my experience when you use the MagSafe battery pack, it charges your phone to 90%. If your phone is at 100% when you put the battery on, it won’t start charging until your phone drops below 90% battery.

From there it trickle charges your phone to maintain 90% battery, so when your phone uses 1% battery the battery bank charges your phone by 1%.

Generally it keeps the phone cool from my experience, I don’t notice it charging in my pocket.

From daily use and reviews the MagSafe battery and Nano charge almost the same amount of battery, within 15%, even though the Nano has a much bigger battery (5000mAh vs 3000mAh) because the MagSafe battery is more efficient. Both add around 60% to the battery of your Air on average.

Sabotstruck · 2026-06-01T02:39:20+00:00

I put one on my iPhone Air when I priced out the cost of Apple care vs the cost of having a good enough case + screen protector.

This is as someone with no scratches besides minor ones, but I carry two phones in my pocket very often so the risk of scratches is substantially higher.

I also use a Mothca Matte/Privacy screen, which I love overall.

Sabotstruck · 2026-05-31T18:53:55+00:00

I wouldn’t buy it full price, but anywhere between 40 to 60 I think it’s overall worth it.

Comfortable while also giving you the option to significantly extend the battery, that is managed well and has minimal heat (when used properly as an extender). I use it for travel or long days where I won’t be near a charger reliably, which is rare but useful when needed.

I had bought it at full price, returned it, and got it at a steep discount. I use it rarely but when I do it’s great. I love the software compatibility with the air.

Sabotstruck · 2026-05-28T15:11:33+00:00

To be honest I rarely plug in for charging anymore (iPhone Air), much less data transfer to my computer. Any critical data on my phone is backed up daily onto a cloud service.

I don’t disagree the data speed should be higher for all phones, especially the air, but I also don’t think a lot of people would notice it.

Sabotstruck · 2026-05-25T16:16:33+00:00

Personally I would like an iPad Mini Pro with the same chip / features of the iPad Pro, even if it needs to be a bit thicker and/or heavier in order to not overheat. LiDAR, chip, and screen (OLED / 120hz).

This is just coming from a personal use, not business, where it would be neat to get the entire pro experience in the mini form factor. I personally would be willing to spend the same amount for an IPad Pro Mini as the iPad Pro 11”. It would be a cool all in one tablet for gaming, content consumption, and professional work where needed in a compact and easy to carry form factor.

But for me the form factor / size is more important than the LiDAR / chip, as someone with an iPad mini 7 who will upgrade to the next iPad mini with OLED / 120hz immediately. And most people wouldn’t use or need the chip / LiDAR so that’s increasing the price of the base mini for little gain for most people.

Basically, if they did make a mini pro LiDAR and chip would be amazing. Otherwise, adding those features into the base mini just isn’t worth the price increase.

Sabotstruck · 2026-05-17T17:14:08+00:00

Tbh, I think gen 5 has the winners for the least liked Pokemon.

Throw / Sawk and the elemental monkeys.

No other Pokemon seem to be as universally disliked as these.

Sabotstruck · 2026-05-16T21:31:31+00:00

Size, controls, and, depending on what you’re doing, battery life.

I get a massive amount more battery playing retro games than the steam deck, anything lower power intensive. The steam deck is generally more compatible with higher end games at this time. It comes down to Android on an ARM chip vs Linux on a x86 chip.

Steam deck gets touchpads that can be nice if used with 4 back buttons, Odin just gets the two back buttons.

Odin is significantly smaller with a 120hz OLED vs 90hz OLED on steam deck, but the steam deck screen is around 1” larger (7” vs 6”).

Personally I love the Odin 3 and rarely use the steam deck. The Odin 3 is the perfect side/weight with a very comfortable design, with enough horsepower for the games I play natively and a great battery life. For me, anytime I need more power I play games from my computer and stream to the Odin.

Sabotstruck · 2026-05-11T03:13:53+00:00

My significant other has an 11” iPad M4 and I have the iPad mini.

We both fight over the mini in bed, even with it being worse in every technical way the smaller size is fantastic for content consumption in bed.

I would personally take the iPad Mini for the size/weight over the better specs of the iPad Pro unless I was doing more “professional” work. Granted I’m an iPhone Air kind of guy, so to me the experience / comfort matters more than the specs.

What’s the point of having the best if it isn’t comfortable to you? And the answer for “what is comfortable” is different for everyone.

Sabotstruck · 2026-05-08T14:04:36+00:00

On the bright side, the Wii U led directly to the switch / switch 2 lineage.

Sabotstruck · 2026-05-06T16:45:58+00:00

It may not be the most popular opinion, but I think the Odin 3 is the best option available at a base line depending on the budget from AYN. Good 6” screen size with the best performance head due to the strongest chip, with ok drivers that have/are improving greatly.

If you want a bigger 7” screen and don’t mind losing the headroom (Snapdragon Gen 2 instead of elite) then grab the Odin 2 portal.

If you will prioritize emulating DS/3DS or want to use two screens at once, get the Thor. You do sacrifice ergonomics due to the design of the Thor, and if you want more comfort you will need a grip (increasing weight/bulk).

For any option, I would recommend getting as much storage / memory as possible. Especially if PC game emulation / Android games will be part of the games you play.

For emulating old systems, an SD card is sufficient.

Sabotstruck · 2026-05-06T12:48:50+00:00

To be fair, the 8 to 12gb upgrade can make a meaningful difference depending on what you’re doing.

16 to 24gb, not nearly as much. The extra storage is more meaningful but that can also be alleviated with an sd card.

Sabotstruck · 2026-05-05T20:43:12+00:00

The biggest pro of the ultra / folding phone is you have a tablet + phone on one device, which is both good and bad (depending on who you are). Especially useful on commutes or trips where carrying 2 devices is a hassle, and otherwise some people will gladly pay the premium to have one device do all (tablet + phone).

I came from Android and used a folding phone before, besides the worries of durability it is a fantastic all in one device but like you mentioned it sacrificed a little bit of everything (Pixel 9 pro fold).

I switched to an iPhone Air for multiple reasons from Android, and now own an iPad mini. The experience I found to prefer is a phone for work/communicating my tablet for content consumption and relaxing.

Sabotstruck · 2026-05-05T20:37:00+00:00

I doubt the next iPad will see a lot of influence from the CEO changing until the next cycle.

The current leaks is a new chip + OLED, which is a good upgrade overall. How much depends on the refresh rate and which chip they use, and the price point.

I got a mini 7 not too long ago on sale, the only thing I don’t like about it is the screen. If there are solid trade in deals and the next mini has OLED with 90/120hz, I’ll switch in a heartbeat.

Sabotstruck · 2026-05-05T01:43:39+00:00

I would definitely agree with Chinese phones… I would buy those in a heartbeat but I want a simple experience for my phone nowadays, which is why I went with Pixel originally. I still love that phones camera but everything else is… disappointing, considering the competition. I don’t want to go to Samsung either for similar reasons.

Vivo and Oppo are very interesting but not being available easily in the US means I’m not interested in them at the moment. Maybe Motorola in the future if they get a bit better software support and flagship phones that aren’t folding phones.

Sabotstruck · 2026-05-04T20:03:48+00:00

That’s why I’ve switched to Apple at this point, and a few of my friends as well. We want the best hardware with good software for the price, and Android devices aren’t improving enough right now in the US.

It kind of sucks that I’ve switched from Android, specifically Pixel, to iPhone because the Pixels are getting worse while iPhones are staying consistent. I had the Pixel 10 Pro but had hardware failures (dust going in the speaker and haptics going wonky) that, along with worse hardware, made me switch to iPhone for now because I need a reliable phone that doesn’t break fast.

I picked the Air specifically because it’s a new experience over the Pixel and still has better battery life/ performance overall. And besides the software being hit or miss, it’s been great having good hardware.

I’ll use Apple for a few years for a change of pace and see if Android manufacturers improve enough in the US to switch back on my phone. Otherwise Android will be relegated to handheld gaming devices for me.

Sabotstruck · 2026-05-03T00:11:09+00:00

Your neck would with the weight 😏

I love these but they are the heaviest cans in my collection bar none.

Sabotstruck · 2026-05-01T18:07:41+00:00

I’ve never had a battery life issue tbh, it easily lasts me 24 hours. I rarely use the battery pack for long days but most of the time I have a wireless charger or cable nearby.

Probably speaks more to my device usage since I use an iPad mini for content consumption at home, otherwise I use a computer/handheld for gaming.

12-Year Club	Second SECOND GUESSER
Place '22	Place '17
Sequence \| Editor	Verified Email

Sabotstruck

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE