Early iOS 18 code reveals that all iPhone 16 models will feature the new A18 chipset.
Popular Apple supply chain analyst Jeff Pu previously predicted the same.
Apple is set to launch the iPhone 16 series in Fall 2024.
iPhone 16 series models will reportedly come with the latest A18 chipset. The news was first reported by Haitong Securities’s Jeff Pu back in November. According to Pu, Apple will reportedly launch the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus models with regular A18 chipset and the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max with A18 Pro. However, a new leak suggests that all four iPhone 16 models will come with the same chipset – A18 Bionic. This development comes from a MacRumors report citing sources that an early iOS 18 source code contains details of the iPhone 16 series. Let’s take a look at the latest iPhone 16 series processor detail.
iPhone 16 Models Will Come With A18 Bionic Chipset
The Apple A17 Pro is the first Pro processor from the brand powering the iPhone 15 Pro models.
MacRumors has obtained details of an early iOS 18 source code, codenamed Crystal. The code is said to contain details of four unreleased iPhone identifiers. These are D47, D48, D93, and D94 referencing to iPhone 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro, and 16 Pro Max, respectively. The report notes that contrary to previous rumours, there is no mention of an iPhone 16 Ultra in the Crystal code. However, it also suggests that the iPhone 16 Ultra could come with a separate identifier like D94 or D94a to differentiate it from the hardware of other iPhones.
MacRumors suggests that the separate identifier theory could be plausible as Apple has done this before. According to the report, Apple developed a new version of the iPhone 15 Pro Max (D84) with identifier code D84S. The S in the identifier stood for Sinope, which was the codename for Apple’s in-house 5G modem project. While the iPhone 15 Pro Max with Apple’s proprietary 5G modem was never released, it confirms the separate identifier theory for the iPhone 16 Ultra, and it could be in the works.
It seems that Apple will now use the same general chipset called A18 across the board to keep the performance uniform across all models. The source code reveals that the same t8140 system on the chip will power all iPhone 16 models. It is not clear yet whether Apple will differentiate between Pro and non-Pro models with A18 Pro and A18 SoC respectively. Apart from this, the source code also contains references to a Broadcom Wi-Fi and Bluetooth module. No other information is revealed by the source code.
To jog your memory, Apple launched the non-Pro iPhone 15 models earlier this year with last year’s A16 Bionic chipset and Pro variants with a new A17 Pro chipset. There was no A17 Bionic and the A17 Pro was touted to be the most powerful SoC from the brand yet with 3nm fabrication, an additional GPU core, and boosted clock speed.
