For the previous two iPhone replace cycles, Apple has used totally different silicon in several telephones, reserving newer chipsets for the newest Professional fashions whereas turning to final 12 months’s system-on-chip for the usual iPhone. It appears like that observe ends this fall with the arrival of the iPhone 16.
A little bit of code in Apple’s backend hints that the 4 iPhone 16 fashions anticipated later this 12 months will all have the identical A-series chip. The code was discovered by Nicolás Alvarez who shared it with MacRumors.
The code noticed by Alvarez incorporates a quantity that signifies the system-on-chip powering the telephone. Be aware that Apple identifiers within the code use a decrease quantity than the general public “identify” of the chip — the A16 is listed as 15, the A17 is listed as 16 and so forth.
There are 5 new iPhone identifiers listed thusly:
- iPhone17,1
- iPhone17,2
- iPhone17,3
- iPhone17,4
- iPhone17,5
For comparability, right here is how the iPhone 15 is recognized in code:
As chances are you’ll recall, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus use the A16 Bionic chip that was within the iPhone 14 Professional fashions. In the meantime, the iPhone 15 Professional and Professional Max characteristic A17 Professional silicon, therefore their 16,x itemizing.
With this leaked code, it is wanting just like the iPhone 16 lineup will all have the identical chip, which we assume is the A18. That is a transfer we have been begging Apple to do for at the very least the final couple of generations.
There have been rumors of Apple altering up the iPhone 16 lineup, and the truth that 5 units listed might add gasoline t that hypothesis. MacRumors thinks the additional mannequin may very well be a future iPhone SE — previous SE fashions have featured the identical chipset discovered within the flagship iPhones launched the earlier fall, so that might observe with a rumored 2025 launch of the iPhone SE 4.
There’s additionally the likelihood that the additional mannequin refers back to the rumored iPhone 16 Extremely, which some folks have touted as a potential Professional Max successor. Nonetheless, there have not been many Extremely rumors bobbing up forward of the doubtless iPhone 16 launch date in a number of months, in order that’s a much less doubtless state of affairs.
Even with the 17,x identifier, it is not sure that each one 4 (or 5) future iPhones could have the very same A18 processors. Apple might differentiate between the Professional and commonplace fashions by splitting the chip between a typical and a ‘Professional’ model.
Or, because the Apple did with the just lately launched M4 iPads, the variety of GPUs or cores out there to the usual mannequin iPhone 16 is perhaps lowered in comparison with what’s out there within the Professional variants.
Why Apple would change its cut up chip technique for the iPhone 16 is more than likely associated to Apple Intelligence which seems to be like it is going to require fairly a little bit of energy to run correctly. AI is already restricted to the A17 Professional-powered iPhone 15 Professional fashions, and regardless of rumors that Apple Intelligence may go subscription primarily based, we do not think about Apple needs to restrict AI to only its Professional telephones going ahead. Thus, the necessity for a robust chipset in all the subsequent technology of iPhones.
