The A-series system-on-chip (SoC) in every new iPhone is more powerful and energy-efficient than the last. Every new A-series chip is unmatched on the Android side, significantly outperforming Qualcomm and Samsung’s same-year competitors. The same is true for the iPhone 14. The new series of iPhones will use Apple’s new silicon for mobile devices. Unlike previous years, however, the A16 Bionic is reported to only power the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Due to this, the A16 Bionic is most likely to face competition this year from the A15 Bionic that powers all iPhone 13 models. Apple is rumored to be using that A15 Bionic for another year. As reported by The Verge, the SoC will be found in the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Max, though the phones will have 6GB of RAM instead of 4GB of RAM like the cheaper iPhone 13 models.
The A15 Bionic in iPhone 14 models is also rumored to get some minor updates. It could be the same as the A15 in the iPhone 13 Pro. The A15 that powers the iPhone 13 Pro differs slightly from the A15 inside the iPhone 13 and 13 mini. It has a 4-core GPU, compared to a 5-core GPU on the Pro models. The A16 Bionic is expected to offer the biggest SoC upgrade this year, but it will reportedly be limited to the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. According to well-known leaker ShrimpApplePro, the iPhone 14 Pro will have a 5nm TSMC chip. Therefore, Apple won’t move to 4nm just yet, a node its competitors already use.
Still, the A16 Bionic should offer a better CPU and GPU, as well as support for LPDDR5 RAM. That last note is important since it allows Apple to use the fastest RAM possible. Apple currently uses LPDDR4X RAM in all iPhone 13 models.
Apple is scheduled to announce the A16 Bionic SoC that powers the iPhone 14 Pro before any new M-series SoCs. The new iPhones are likely to be released in September. It’s unlikely that Apple will announce any Mac launches before the iPhone 14 press conference in 2022.
