Apple shocked many of its fans when it launched the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus models in 2022 without the latest processor. Both models were unveiled with last year’s A15 Bionic, an SoC manufactured using the 5nm process. The more expensive iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max models instead came with the latest Apple A16 Bionic, which used the newer 4nm manufacturing process. Apple repeated the same with this year’s iPhone 15 launch, unveiling another iPhone 15 model with last year’s A16 Bionic SoC, while the top-end Pro models received a brand new A17 Pro SoC. While it seems like using old SoCs in the cheaper iPhone will soon become a standard practice for Apple, it looks like this might not be the case with next year’s iPhone 16 series.
According to a report from Wccf Tech, which spoke to industry analyst Jeff Pu of Haitong Securities, Apple could offer the same new processor in next year’s base iPhone 16 models as the Pro models. Pu claims in the report that all new iPhone 16 models, including both the cheaper iPhone 16 models and the more expensive iPhone 16 Pro models, will use the same A18 Pro processor, which will be announced by Apple next year. The analyst also states that the SoC will be manufactured by TSMC using the second-generation N3E 3nm process node.
This year’s iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are indeed quite a leap in terms of processing power over the high-end Qualcomm silicon powering premium Android smartphones this year. This is because Apple became the first company to release its own processor, which is manufactured using the more efficient 3nm process, compared to the 4nm process that most Android smartphone manufacturers currently use. This is expected to change when the first Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC-powered smartphones arrive, which use the more efficient 3nm manufacturing process.
The second-generation 3nm process node is expected to deliver better efficiency, allowing more processors to be manufactured on a single silicon wafer. TSMC is currently using the N3B process node to build Apple’s current generation A17 Pro processor. The efficiency of such processors is usually related to the manufacturing process, as the decrease in the number of process nodes allows more transistors to be placed in the same space, allowing for more power and better efficiency, making the devices powered by these processors also last longer. terms of battery life.
