Apple launched the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus last year with the A16 Bionic chip, and the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max with the A17 Pro, introducing even more differentiation between the Pro and non-Pro models. When you consider that only the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max support Apple Intelligence, precisely because of their chipsets, it turns out to be an especially egregious move now.
Apple doesn’t seem to be doing the same thing this year. Apple’s backend code reveals that all iPhone 16 models will be powered by an A18 chip.
Apple might still offer a two-tier system, with non-pro iPhone 16s getting A18 while pros get A18 Pro or something like that, but at least cheaper iPhones won’t have last year’s SoC.
The vanilla models may get fewer GPU cores, either binned or disabled, if Apple goes the tiered route. There are five models found in Apple’s code, and it remains unclear what the fifth will be – speculation says it could be the next iPhone SE, which could launch in early 2025 with the same chip as the iPhone 16.
