The iPhone 11 and all of the other iPhone models available are very portable and can fit into your pocket or bag. But How is it still able to perform cellular and WIFI capabilities if they’re that small without any visible antenna? If you’ve given this some thought, I can assure you that you’re not alone and the air is about to be cleared concerning this topic.
In this article, you’ll find out whether or not the iPhone 11 makes use of any antennas whatsoever for connectivity.
Does The iPhone 11 Have An Antenna?
The simple answer to your question is yes. The iPhone 11 does have an antenna built in, but they’re not visible to the eye, not except you open up the device. It has a couple of antennas located almost at the four corners of your iPhone. That would mean, two at the top, opposite to themselves, just near the Camera and two at the bottom.
Without the antennas, your iPhone will not do more than a metal box with an LED screen. What I mean is, the functionality to be able to make and receive calls will be lost as well as connecting to the internet whether through cellular or WIFI.
Different from what used to be when mobile phone started with very large protruding antennas, the iPhone 11 have installed inside of it very miniaturized set of antennas, the 2×2 MIMO antennas, though less powerful than the one a typical walkie-talkie had, but more efficient for the widespread of cellular towers and WIFI routers.
Can You Connect An Antenna To An iPhone?
Except you travel in time back to any year in the 90’s, it is not possible in the 21st century. The very first iPhone had the ability, they had ports specially built for screwing in external WIFI. In today’s world, you do not need them anymore.
iPhones have tiny antennas built-in that communicate effectively with cellular towers. Also, over the years we have seen them come in different capabilities as 2g, 3g, 4, and 5g which is so far the latest in cellular antennas.
If you’re running on 3g, there’s no external antenna attachment available that can improve your phone to have 4g abilities. The only thing to do is to buy a new iPhone.
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iPhone 11 WIFI And Cellular Antenna?
Understanding how the antenna in the iPhone 11 works involves a little bit of technicality, however, it’s not a concept you won’t be able to wrap your head around. First, you need to understand that the iPhone 11 or any other iPhone model won’t be able to do without a WIFI and cellular antenna, not even in the future. That’s a strong claim, but it’s true, the best that will happen to the iPhone antenna technology will be to get smaller.
However, their duty will remain to transmit electromagnetic waves from the iPhone 11 to the cellular tower or other suitable receptors. An Electromagnetic wave is the offspring of a magnetic and electric wave collision and will vary in frequency for WIFI and cellular.
A typical WIFI antenna as incorporated by the iPhone 11 will transmit at a frequency of 2.4 GHZ to 5 GHZ whereas a cellular antenna will transmit at a much lower frequency ranging from 800 MHZ to 1800 MHZ. This explains outrightly why your home WIFI may be supplying a larger Megabytes per second than cellular, and also why WIFI calls on iPhone are much preferred.
How To Fix iPhone 11 WIFI And Cellular Antenna
If you have lost the ability to connect to your router using your iPhone 11 WIFI connection, or getting very poor or no signal at all in areas where you’d normally have a good quality cellular network reception, then you may need to fix your WIFI and cellular antenna.
However, before furthering to get a replacement for the WIFI and cellular antenna, ensure first that you have ruled out the chances of a software affecting your WIFI or cellular connectivity. Below include the list of troubleshooting steps you should take first before a final antenna fix.
- Reboot your device to restart all core iPhone software.
- Turn off your Router, leave it off for a couple minutes, 10 minutes is ideal and turn it back on.
- Reset network settings
If none of the above works in resolving your WIFI and cellular issues, then you most definitely need to fix the WIFI and cellular antenna.
However, the iPhone 11 antenna when it goes bad cannot be repaired but replaced. You can easily buy a replacement at any authorized Apple store. You’d have to open the iPhone, as the WIFI and cellular antenna assembly is sited on the back housing. Using the below instruments continue with the fix;
- A set of screwdrivers including;
- P2 Pentalobe screwdriver for iPhone
- Standoff iPhone screwdriver
- Tri-point Y000 Screwdriver
- Philips #000 Screwdriver
- Tweezers
- Spudger
- Heat gun
- Suction handle
- Opening picks
- First detach the display from the back of the iPhone. A heat gun will be used to do this, the suction handle as well as the opening picks.
- Locate the antenna chip, loose the screws holding it firm to the main board.
- Use the heat gun to melt the adhesive gum and remove the antenna chip.
- Fix the replacement you got from the store, couple the device.
- Turn on the iPhone 11, ensure the WIFI and cellular works properly.
As always, fixes that require opening the back housing of the iPhone are rather delicate and much care should be taken to avoid causing more trouble to the phone. If you’re not sure of what the outcome can be fixing the phone yourself, it’s best you take it to the professionals desk.
You can also get a fix at the Apple genius bar if you schedule a fix with them, it can cost anywhere from $50 to $100 or even free if your warranty still covers your iPhone.
Video Guide
iPhone 11 No service fixing
Apple iPhone 11 Teardown
Follow this video to disassemble iPhone 11. You can replace cameras, battery, earpiece, speaker and other inbuilt devices. The inner structure of the iPhone 11 is complicated and it is difficult to repair. There are more than 50 screws inside the phone and each screw is slightly different. We need to remember all the positions of the screws when we reassemble the phone.
Conclusion
WIFI and cellular issues are usually traced back to software related problems, but it’s also not uncommon to find that the WIFI and cellular data antenna responsible for connectivity is broken and will need replacement. However I advise you to rule out that the culprit is not software related first before attempting an antenna replacement.
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