Why The A17 Bionic Chip on The iPhone 15 Pro Will Be Different From The A17 Bionic Chip on iPhone 16

Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro models later this year with a wide range of changes in terms of design and internals. The standard models are slated to equip this year's A16 Bionic chip while the iPhone 15 Pro models will house the improved A17 Bionic chip based on TSMC's 3nm process. We are expecting major performance and efficiency gains with the 3nm A17 Bionic chip but new rumor coins that Apple will introduce a new N3E process next year to keep the costs at bay.

Standard iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus to feature A17 Bionic chip based on TSMC's N3E process compared to the N3B on the iPhone 15 Pro

Currently, the A16 Bionic chip in the iPhone 14 Pro models is based on TSMC's 4nm process. In comparison, the A17 Bionic will bring better performance and battery life thanks to the 3nm fabrication compared to the iPhone 14 Pro models. However, only the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max devices are slated to receive the latest hardware. Apple has created differentiating factors between the standard and the 'Pro' models and the processors are part of the mix.

A new post from a Weibo user "Mobile phone chip expert" suggests that the A17 Bionic chip in this year's iPhone 15 Pro models will be based on TSMC's N3B process this year. The N3B is TSMC's 3nm node specifically for Apple while it uses the N3E node for the rest of the clients. Apple is likely to introduce the change to cut costs but efficiency will be compromised. In contrast to the N3B process, the N3E process features reduced EUV layers and comparatively fewer transistors.

While the A17 Bionic chip will be less efficient compared to the N3B version of the chip, it will bring enhanced performance capabilities. This opens the door to another issue if the iPhone's battery life will take a hit. If the rumor has any heft to it, the iPhone 15 Pro models will house a faster version of the A17 Bionic chip while next year's iPhone models will be based on the less efficient version based on TSMC's N3E architecture.

Since Apple has created differentiating factors between the standard and the 'Pro' models of the iPhone, we suspect the N3E version of the A17 Bionic will be part of the standard models of the iPhone 16 lineup. This is because the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max will feature Apple's improved A18 Bionic chip. With the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, Apple used the A15 Bionic chip with an increased number of GPU cores for enhanced graphical performance. Hence, the company introduced a comparatively enhanced chip in the iPhone 14 models compared to the iPhone 13.

Since it is only a rumor at this stage, be sure to take the news with a grain of salt. The iPhone 15 lineup is months away from launch and the company could surprise us with its own iteration of plans.

Written by Ali Salman