Before the iPhone 15 is announced, rumors are already moving to the iPhone 16 lineup. According to Jeff Pu, a tech analyst at Hong Kong investment firm Haitong International Securities, Apple plans to add an enhanced A17 Bionic chip for next year’s base models in addition to more RAM.
In a note seen by MacRumors, Pu believes Apple will offer a new A17 Bionic chip for the iPhone 16 and Plus models. This chip is expected to be introduced for the iPhone 15 Pro models. This processor uses a 3nm manufacturing process, which Apple will be the first company to apply in a smartphone. For next year, the analyst says Cupertino will use a new manufacturing process to develop the A17 Bionic chip for the standard iPhone 16 versions.
According to Pu, Apple will switch from the N3E manufacturing process to N3B. MacRumors explains that “N3E has fewer EUV layers and lower transistor density than N3B, resulting in efficiency tradeoffs, but the process can provide better performance.”
In the meantime, the iPhone 16 Pro models will get the A18 Bionic chip, which will also have a 3nm manufacturing process but with a few enhancements – which haven’t leaked yet.
Jeff Pu also says Apple will add 8GB of RAM to next year’s base model phones. Currently, all iPhones have 6GB of RAM, but the iPhone 15 Pro versions are expected to get a RAM increase for the first time in two years. With that, the base models would follow the new iPhone Pros a year later.
Besides that, the iPhone 16 Pro models are already expected to get a display increase. This, alongside other internal enhancements, would enable both Pro and Pro Max models to get a periscope lens, which is expected to be exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro Max this year.
Rumors about an iPhone Ultra also point to a 2024 release, but we’ll have to keep a closer look at the upcoming reports.
BGR will follow Apple’s announcements and let you know once we learn more about them.
