2019 iPhone And iPad Pro Models To Have Enhanced Antennas For Better Indoor Reception
American electronics giant Apple is expected to launch three new iPhones and updated variants of the iPad Pro tablets later this year. The latest research note from renowned analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, he predicts both the smartphones and tablets will make use of new antenna technology. According to Kuo, who has been notably accurate with his leaks in the past, the iPhones and iPads will shift from using the Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) design to the Modified-PI material antennas when they launch later in 2019. The shift to the new antenna technology is expected to make mobile networks indoors more reliable.
LCP vs. MPI Antennas
As mentioned above, Apple will shift the antenna design in its upcoming devices from LCP to MPI material. LCP or Liquid Crystal Polymer design of the antenna is a low cost organic flexible layer that has some unique electrical properties making it suitable for antennae. It also behaves consistently across the entire radio frequency range, has a very low signal loss, making it useful for the application of 5G, the next generation of mobile connectivity. The LCP material is vastly seen in the application in products like Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags and mobile phones.
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Modified-PI material for antennae, on the other hand, offers the same performance but are significantly more affordable. Interestingly, Apple uses six LCP antennas in its current generation of iPhones, namely the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and the iPhone XR. These six antennas will be replaced by two MPI and four LCP antennas in the upcoming iPhones and iPads. However, the analyst claims Apple will make use of the LCP antennas primary in the year 2020. This is because of the advantage of the technology for use in 5G devices, which the company is expected to introduce starting next year. Apple is expected to launch the new iPhones in the month of September later this year, while the iPad Pro is expected to be unveiled at the end of this year or early next year.
