Apple’s Full iPhone 16 Lineup May Use the Same Generation of A-Series Chips

Apple may go back to using the same generation of A-series chips on its upcoming iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro this year. According to Apple’s backend code discovered by Nicolás Alvarez and shared with MacRumors, Apple currently has five upcoming iPhone models that will be using the same chip generation.

The report explains that Apple’s internal numbering scheme for iPhone models ties a specific identifier to a specific chip. As an example, the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus that use the same A16 chip have the “iPhone 15‌,4’ and ‘iPhone 15,5’ identifiers, respectively. However, the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max using the more recent A17 Pro chip have the ‘iPhone 16,1’ and ‘iPhone 16,2’ identifiers.

Starting with the iPhone 14 lineup in 2022, Apple started to only use its latest A-Series for its Pro and Pro Max iPhones. That’s why the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max came with the brand new A16 Bionic chip, while the regular iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus kept the A15 chip from the iPhone 13. The company did the same thing last year when the redesigned iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max got the new A17 Pro chip, while the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus had the A16 chip from the iPhone 14 Pro.

Well, the code discovered by Alvarez reveals that Apple’s upcoming iPhones have the following identifiers: iPhone 17,1, iPhone 17,2, iPhone 17,3, iPhone 17,4, and iPhone 17,5. This suggests that the iPhone 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro, and 16 Pro Max will all be using the same generation of A-Series chip, which should be the “A18” if Apple sticks with its current naming scheme.

“While we do expect all four ‌iPhone 16‌ models to use a new A18 chip, Apple could still differentiate between the standard models and the Pro models, even giving the chips separate A18 and A18 Pro names,” MacRumors explained. “Apple could use A18 chips with a smaller number of GPU cores (either binned or disabled) for the ‌iPhone 16‌ models, while saving chips with a better GPU for the iPhone 16 Pro lineup.”

As for the fifth iPhone identifier in the list discovered by Alvarez, it could well be for an upcoming version of the iPhone SE. The latest version of Apple’s cheapest iPhone was released back in 2022, and it still used the same design as the iPhone 8 from 2017. However, MacRumors previously reported that the next SE model could use the same design as the iPhone 14.

Apple using the same chip for its full iPhone 16 lineup and a 4th-gen iPhone SE could facilitate the rollout of Apple Intelligence. Apple already said that its personal intelligence system will be available on the iPhone 15 and Pro Max, but it won’t be supported on the regular iPhone 15 and 15 Plus that come with the older A16 chip and only have 6GB of memory. With the upcoming iPhone 16 lineup, however, all iPhone models may come with a minimum of 8GB of memory to run Apple’s new AI features.