All iPhone 16 models rumoured to launch with Apple A18 SoC

Apple's decision to mix and match last and current-gen SoCs on Pro and non-Pro iPhone models could stop this year. A report from MacRumors says all iPhone 16 models will launch with an A18 SoC. Dataminer @nicolas09F9 found that the upcoming iPhones have consistent codenames (iPhone 17,1, iPhone 17,2, iPhone 17,3, iPhone 17,4, iPhone 17,5).

The reasoning for it is fairly simple; Apple wants to ensure all iPhone models to run Apple Intelligence before its features are eventually paywalled. It would also involve a much-needed RAM upgrade because running AI tasks locally requires at least 8 GB of system memory. This is widely believed to be the actual reason for Apple Intelligence not arriving on the current-gen iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus.

The existence of iPhone 17,5 is interesting as it foreshadows a fifth iPhone model. Then again, it could also be referring to the 2025-bound iPhone 17, as evidenced by previous iPhone codenames for the iPhone 15 (iPhone 15,4) and iPhone 15 Plus (iPhone 15,5). Or, it could be the elusive Ultra-branded iPhone that has been talked about in recent months.

However, industry analyst Jeff Pu told MacRumors earlier that Apple could launch two versions of its next-gen SoC: A18 and A18 Pro. The former will likely power the vanilla iPhone 16/iPhone 16 Plus and the latter iPhone 16 Pro/iPhone 16 Pro Max. Exactly how the two chips will differ remains a mystery, and knowing Apple, the regular A18 could very well be an A17 Pro with a fresh coat of paint.

As far as the actual Apple A18 chip is concerned, it is said to be manufactured on TSMC's N3E node. There might not be much in the way of performance gains because N3E has lower transistor density than the Apple A17 Pro's N3B. Then again, Apple's chips are lightyears ahead of the competition, and if recent leaks are accurate, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 for Galaxy and MediaTek Dimensity 9400 still have some catching up to do.