Apple is set to launch the iPhone 16 series in September. Now a rumor says that the non-Pro iPhone 16 models will also get the latest and most capable A series chip, the Apple A18 Pro.
For those unfamiliar, Apple started using generation-old Bionic chips on non-Pro iPhones starting with the iPhone 14 series. With the iPhone 15 series, Apple also added a ‘Pro’ branding to the chipset for the Pro models.
However, the latest rumor says that even the non-Pro iPhones will use the latest A-series chip (possibly named A18 Pro). The news comes from @Nicolás Alvarez on X who discovered relevant codes in Apple’s backend. The codes reveal that all four iPhone 16 models will be powered by an A18 Pro chip.
Apple Intelligence could be the reason behind the decision
The A15 Bionic was capable enough to run the basic features in iOS without an issue. However, this isn’t the case anymore. iOS 18 integrates Apple Intelligence, which requires the phone to run some AI features natively on the device. While these features are also noted as basic AI features, the NPUs in the older chips aren’t capable enough to accomplish the tasks. As a result, only the Pro models of the iPhone 15 series (with the A17 Pro chip) support Apple Intelligence.
The A18 Pro chip will reportedly come with a more capable NPU as compared to the A17 Pro from last year. It could result in a noticeable difference in AI performance between the two chips. It could also repeat what we are seeing with the iPhone 15 series when it comes to the implementation of Apple Intelligence in the future. This could be the reason why Apple has decided to power all the iPhone 16 models with the new chip.
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