Thinking of upgrading to iPhone 17? STOP! There are good reasons to wait for 2026's iPhone 18
Thursday was the first day of spring which is when the flowers are blooming, the days grow longer and warmer, and every young lad starts thinking about...the next iPhone series. Sure, we are still six long months away from the iPhone 17 line. Even though we are still half a year away, you might want to consider skipping the purchase of an iPhone 17 model and wait for the iPhone 18 series instead.
The iPhone 18 line will be powered by the A20 application processor (AP) manufactured by TSMC. GF Securities analyst Jeff Pu originally said that for the A20 SoCs Apple would repeat the use of its third-generation 3nm process (N3P) node used on the A19 AP. But Pu has either changed his mind or learned something new from his sources.
Pui now says that the A20 will be produced on TSMC's 2nm node which could make the A20 and A20 Pro chipsets more powerful and energy-efficient. With this in mind, unless your iPhone is on its last leg, or you're one of the lucky ones with the wherewithal to upgrade every year, you might want to keep your powder dry and hold off upgrading until the 2026 iPhones are announced.
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max might see an increase in memory from 8GB RAM to 12GB, we could see all four iPhone 18 models equipped with 12GB of RAM by 2026. If this is the case, waiting that one extra year before upgrading could, depending on the model you buy, result in you purchasing a phone with additional RAM allowing it to be better at multitasking and gaming.
Moving to 2nm from 3nm will probably hit Apple in the pocketbook for the first year as TSMC would be expected to charge Apple a higher price for the silicon wafers that the chips are built on. TSMC's first tests producing chips at 2nm showed a very respectable 60% yield which is outstanding for an early practice run of a new node. By the time the foundry is churning out Apple's application processors, the yield could be well over 70%.
So to recap, waiting an extra year and upgrading to a new iPhone 18 in 2026 instead of this year will:
- Give you an iPhone powered by a more powerful and energy-efficient 2nm chip (assuming that Pu has the timeline right).
- Allow you to buy an iPhone with more RAM making it a better gaming and multitasking device.
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