Apple started rebranding its iPhone chips with the iPhone 15 Pro which is powered by the A17 Pro rather than the A17 Bionic, breaking the company’s naming cycle after many years. The rebranding effort will continue in the entire iPhone 16 line, which is expected to feature a flagship A18 system-on-chip in two variants, according to a new report.
This forecast hails from notable leaker and Haitong’s consultant Jeff Pu, who also managed to correctly predict the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s (review) price hike and Apple dropping the alert slider in favor of an Action Button.
Apple iPhone 16 processor
In his research note (via MacRumors), he described how Apple will utilize the A18 and A18 Pro chipsets in next year’s iPhone 16 (Plus) and iPhone 16 Pro (Max), respectively. This move should see the Bionic chip branding dropped even for standard iPhones, with the current generation running on last year’s A16 Bionic.
However, it was not mentioned whether the same chips are going to power some Apple iPad tablets that still rely on the Bionic chips like the iPad 10 (review) and iPad Mini 6. Additionally, the A18 and A18 Pro names are not even final and may be renamed in the process.
How will the Apple A18 and A18 Pro be better than A17 Pro
Likewise, it mentioned that both A18 processors will benefit from the new TSMC’s 3NE manufacturing process. Compared to the N3B that is currently used to manufacture the iPhone 15 Pro’s A17 Pro, the 3NE has a more efficient yield output and is cheaper to use.
It is also unclear what are the differentiating features between the A18 and A18 Pro. However, it is safe to assume the iPhone manufacturer will make the chips distinguishable at least in terms of clock speed and the number of cores in both CPU and GPU configurations.
We want to know your suggestions on how Apple should name its iPhone chipsets. Should the Cupertino tech giant continue to use the “Bionic” brand for its standard iPhones? Let us hear your answers in the comments.
