Last yr Apple launched the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus with the A16 Bionic chip, and the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max with the A17 Pro, introducing much more differentiation between the Pro and non-Pro models. This wasn’t very effectively acquired, and it seems to be an particularly egregious transfer in hindsight now, when you think about that solely the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max assist Apple Intelligence, exactly due to the chipset.
The excellent news is that it looks as if Apple is not going to do the identical factor this yr. According to code found in Apple’s backend, all four iPhone 16 models will be powered by an A18 chip.
There may nonetheless be a two-tier system, the place the non-Pro iPhone 16s get the A18 whereas the Pros get an A18 Pro or one thing like that, however at the least the cheaper units will not be caught with final yr’s SoC.
If Apple does go the tiered method, then the vanilla models may get a smaller variety of GPU cores, both binned or disabled. The fascinating bit is that 5 models have been found in Apple’s code, and it is nonetheless a thriller what the fifth will be – hypothesis says it might very effectively be the following iPhone SE, which might launch in early 2025 with the identical chip because the iPhone 16 household.
