Apple's A20 may still upgrade to TSMC's 2nm process despite previous claims, said to be 15% faster than A19

There have been a lot of leaks and rumors about Apple’s iPhone 18 series that will (most likely) launch next year, even though the iPhone 17 series hasn’t even launched yet. But, as newer information comes to light, it seems like Apple will be switching to TSMC’s 2nm manufacturing process for its A20 SoC that will power the iPhone 18 series, which will potentially give the SoC about a 15% performance bump compared to the A19 chips.

According to previous reports, it was believed that Apple would be sticking with TSMC’s 3nm manufacturing process for its A20 chips, which would be the same as the A19 chips, resulting in no real performance improvement. However, another industry analyst has stated that the A20 chips will, in fact, be based on the Taiwanese chip manufacturer’s 2nm process. Furthermore, a report by Economic News Daily states that this new manufacturing process will yield 15% better performance compared to 3nm, and that too with the same power consumption. 

Another report stated that TSMC will start taking orders for its 2nm wafers and Apple may be the first customer, using this process for its A20 chip.

The current generation of iPhones has the Apple A18 SoCs that are based on the 3nm process. While the iPhone 17 series is believed to stick with the same manufacturing process, it will have moderate performance improvements compared to the current generation, thanks to increased transistor density enabled by an upgraded 3nm process.

With the iPhone 17 and iPhone 18 series, Apple is also said to use silicon-carbon batteries that have increased capacity without an increase in the thickness of the phones.

It should be noted that Apple has not shared any information on the upcoming iPhone 17 series or the iPhone 18 series of smartphones, so this should be taken with a pinch of salt.