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Apple’s decision to start using last year’s chips on the non-Pro models hasn’t received the best reception, as regular iPhone buyers seemingly have no choice but to upgrade to the Pro models for performance improvements. However, according to a new report from Haitong Securities analyst Jeff Pu, all this could change, as Apple is looking to power the entire iPhone 16 series with the A18 chip.
According to the report, the iPhone 16 lineup will feature TSMC’s state-of-the-art 3nm A-series chips produced through the supplier’s N3E process. However, the standard iPhone 16 models will house the A18 Bionic chip, while the ‘Pro’ models will feature the A18 Pro chips. This implies that the regular models will skip TSMC’s N3B process altogether, directly transitioning to the N3E fabrication, resulting in a significant performance boost.
Reasoning behind Apple’s decision?
When the company first introduced the A17 Pro chip with a whopping 19 billion transistors, it marked a significant jump in performance, considering the iPhone 15 Pro models could finally play PC-level games like Resident Evil natively without streaming.
However, despite the performance gains, the A17 Pro chips, utilizing the N3B process node, suffer from low yields, which represent the percentage of successfully manufactured chips compared to the total possible chips on a single wafer. While companies typically bear the responsibility for defective chips, Apple’s sheer scale and TSMC’s dominance (accounting for over 90% of the production of the A17 Pro chips) mean that low yields might result in a significant financial loss.
As a result, jumping the non-Pro models straight to the A18 chips would not only provide a massive performance boost for regular customers but also help Apple save a substantial amount of money. Moreover, when comparing the N3E process node with the current N3B used for the A17 Pro, the second-generation process promises greater power efficiency and significantly improved performance.
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