Over the last two iPhone refresh cycles, Apple has used different silicon in different phones, reserving the new chipsets for the latest Pro models while switching to last year’s system-on-a-chip for the standard iPhone. It looks like that practice will end this fall with the arrival of the iPhone 16.
A bit of code in Apple’s backend suggests that all four iPhone 16 models expected later this year will all have the same A-series chip. The code was found by Nicolás Alvarez who shared it with MacRumors.
The code spotted by Alvarez includes a number that indicates the system-on-chip that powers the phone. Note that the Apple identifiers in the code use a number lower than the chip’s public “name”: the A16 is listed as 15, the A17 is listed as 16, and so on.
There are five new iPhone IDs listed as:
- iPhone17.1
- iPhone 17.2
- iPhone 17.3
- iPhone 17.4
- iPhone 17.5
For comparison, here’s how the iPhone 15 is identified in code:
As you may recall, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus use the A16 Bionic chip found in the iPhone 14 Pro models. In contrast, the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max feature the A17 Pro chip, hence their 16.x rating.
With this leaked code, it seems that the entire iPhone 16 lineup will have the same chip, which we believe is the A18. It’s a decision we’ve been begging Apple to make for at least two generations.
Rumors have been swirling that Apple will be changing the iPhone 16 lineup, and the fact that five devices are listed could fuel that speculation. MacRumors believes the additional model could be a future iPhone SE — previous SE models featured the same chipset found in the flagship iPhones released the previous fall, which would align with a rumored 2025 release for the iPhone SE 4.
It’s also possible that the additional model is a reference to the iPhone 16 Ultra, which some have talked about as a possible successor to the Pro Max. Still, there haven’t been many rumors about the Ultra ahead of the iPhone 16’s likely release date in a few months, so that’s a less likely scenario.
Even with the 17.x identifier, it’s not certain that all four (or five) future iPhones will have the exact same A18 processors. Apple could differentiate the Pro and standard models by splitting the chip into a standard version and a “Pro” version.
Or, as Apple did with the recently released M4 iPads, the number of GPUs or cores available on the standard iPhone 16 model could be reduced compared to what’s available in the Pro variants.
The reason Apple changed its shared chip strategy for the iPhone 16 likely has to do with Apple Intelligence, which seems to require a lot of power to run properly. AI is already limited to the iPhone 15 Pro models powered by the A17 Pro, and despite rumors that Apple Intelligence could be subscription-based, we don’t imagine Apple will want to limit AI to just its Pro phones in the future. Hence the need for a powerful chipset in all future generations of iPhones.
More information on Tom’s Guide
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