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In the past few years, Apple has been fragmenting the iPhone franchise in a rather delivered manner. Not only did it start keeping its fast displays for the Pro series of iPhones, but it also kept its fast chipsets for the more expensive iPhone's as well.
As a result, we got an iPhone 15 and iPhone 14 that are not only equipped with a slow 60 HZ, but also carries a processor from the previous year. While nothing has changed for the 2024 iPhone 16 series in terms of display refresh speeds, Apple is introducing a grand change in its fragmentation strategy when it comes to processors. During the GlowtimeiPhone 16 event keynote presentation, apple confirmed that both the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro lines are equipped with its brand new A18 series of chipsets.
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The fact that Apple brought its fastest 2024 processor to the cheapest 2024 iPhone as well will be welcome news for those who don't care for the periscope zoom of the Pro series or the larger and quicker screens.
Thank you, Apple Intelligence, for the fastest iPhone 16!
Needless to say, apple didn't just decide to equip its cheaper iPhone's with its newest processor from the good of its heart, but was actually sort of forced to do it by the circumstances. The Android competition like Samsung or Oppo already introduced integrated artificial intelligence functionality in their phones before Apple.
Trying to catch up, the gang from Cupertino introduce its own take on generative AI, and aptly called it Apple Intelligence. The sheer variety of Apple Intelligence features brings added complexity to the task of running it as an integrative part of iOS 18, though. Spanning the usual AI stuff that other brands already have, such as chatbots and object erasers, live transcription and translation, or content creation assistance, AI on iPhones still offers a uniquely Apple touch, down to the deep Siri integration.
AI competitions, however, require a lot of on-device processing power and, it turned out, something that Apple's cheapest iPhones have never had, namely more RAM.
While the Apple A17 processor is fast enough to run Apple Intelligence, the iPhone 15 shipped with only six gigabytes of RAM, as usual, so Apple wouldn't have had enough in reserve to make its AI computations run smooth and uninterrupted. Enter the iPhone 16!
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iPhone 16 is first with 8GB RAM and 4GHz chip!
The theory about insufficient amount of RAM to run Apple Intelligence was first launched by famed Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. He theorized that, if the iPad and its M1 chipset can run Apple Intelligence, then the A17 chipset that can run more TOPS shouldn't have any problems, either, so the problem must be something else.
Well, Apple's machine learning department chief John Giannandrea clarified that iPhones without the A17 Pro chip can't run it with the level of smooth and polish that Apple would find acceptable, but in theory the A17 in the iPhone 15 can run Apple Intelligence.
Apple's Head of Marketing Greg Joswiak added that anything with M1 and above can run it, but its software head Craig Federighi actually confirmed that Apple Intelligence can only run on devices with at least 8GB RAM, and that's indeed the reason iPhone 15 was left out.
Fast-forward to today, and we have the first tangible evidence that the iPhone 16 indeed comes with 8GB RAM for the first time on an affordable iPhone. The iPhone 16 Geekbench score listing also confirms the rumor that the Apple A18 processor has indeed pierced the 4GHz clock speed barrier for the first time, too.
iPhone 16 vs iPhone 16 Pro Max A18 processor benchmark
Depending on which Geekbench listing of the iPhone 16 Pro Max (id17,2) or iPhone 16 (id17,3) one takes, the Apple A18 Pro and A18 chip are either neck and neck, or with slight advantage for the A18 Pro version like in the comparison below.
iPhone A18 vs A18 Pro benchmark scores | Image credit – Geekbench
The Apple A18 Pro features both a 6-core main processor and a 6-core graphics processing subsystem. Apple reportedly wanted to clock the two A18 Pro performance cores to the exorbitant 4.95 GHz clock frequency to no avail as the thermal management stability and power draw just weren't there at those speeds. As a result, it settled on the 4.05 GHz clock count, which is actually lower than the 4.35 GHz peak speed of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 cores.
The stripped down version of the Apple A18 for the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus comes with a 6-core processor as well, but a penta-core GPU, compared to the six cores of the graphics processor in the iPhone 16 Pro. The iPhone 16 processor also has reduced cache size compared to the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, and a lower clock speed for the efficiency cores.
Still, it runs neck and neck with the A18 Pro in benchmarks, perhaps due to the fact that the graphics subsystem has to run a smaller and slower display. The key takeaway from the first tangible evidence of the iPhone 16 processor specs, however, is that the phone does ship with 8GB RAM for the first time, and it is the first Apple mobile processor to pierce the 4GHz clock speed barrier indeed, and those facts will count for its future owners.
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Daniel, a devoted tech writer at PhoneArena since 2010, has been engrossed in mobile technology since the Windows Mobile era. His expertise spans mobile hardware, software, and carrier networks, and he's keenly interested in the future of digital health, car connectivity, and 5G. Beyond his professional pursuits, Daniel finds balance in travel, reading, and exploring new tech innovations, while contemplating the ethical and privacy implications of our digital future.
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