The new Apple iPhones have Intel modems inside, an initial teardown reveals.

iFixit revealed the components in the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max on Friday. Unsurprisingly, the new Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) devices use Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) modems for their LTE mojo, since Apple is in an ongoing legal dispute over payments with long-time supplier Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM) (See Apple Trying to Drop Qualcomm – Report and Qualcomm Profits Hammered by Licensing Disputes.)

Qualcomm addressed this issue briefly on its last earnings call on July 25. "We believe Apple intends to solely use our competitor's modems rather than our modems in its next iPhone release," Qualcomm CFO George Davis said. "We will continue to provide modems for Apple legacy devices."

iFixit, meanwhile, lists Intel as the modem provider for the XS, and the XS Max.

"We can't comment on other companies' products," a spokeswoman for Intel told Light Reading. Sharp-eyed Twitter users, though, also spotted the products in the phone:

Speed tester SpeedSmart found the 4G speeds from the new models significantly faster than previous iPhone X models in early testing.

Readers may note that -- despite the improvements -- these downloads are nowhere near gigabit speeds. That's because attaining peak speeds (likely of a couple of hundred megabits per second or so) still depends heavily on network upgrades and loads. (See When Is a Gig Not a Gig? When It's Gigabit LTE!.)

Even so, users are noticing the speed increase:

— Dan Jones, Mobile Editor, Light Reading