Wired
Well-known Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo recently broke the news on Twitter that Apple will break with tradition this year. Only the iPhone 14 Pro series will use the A16 processor, while the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro will continue to use the old A15 processor. Foreign media sources also confirmed this.
Guo MingjiIt is pointed out that from 2022, the iPhone 14 series will adopt a processor differentiation strategy, and the A16 bionic chip will only be used on the two high-end flagship models of the 6.1-inch iPhone 14 and 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Pro, only the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14. The two Pro models will continue to use the same A15 bionic chip as the iPhone 13 series.
In addition, although the memory of the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro series will be increased from 4GB to 6GB, the iPhone 14 Pro high-end memory is equipped with LPDDR 5, and the basic iPhone 14 is only equipped with LPDDR 4X.
The above news also received foreign media 9to5Mac Exclusive news confirmed that Apple has been developing two new iPhone 14 models with A16 chips internally, and the other two will use the old version of the A15 chip.
Why does Apple plan to use A16 and A15 processors for the iPhone 14?
It’s not the first time Apple has used processors to differentiate flagship iPhone models. In 2013, it used the A7 bionic chip for the iPhone 5s, and the cheaper iPhone 5C used only the A6 bionic chip.
In addition to the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro series, it can be found that although both of them use the A15 bionic chip, the iPhone 13 Pro uses a 6-core CPU and a 5-core GPU. Only the iPhone 13 / mini uses a 6-core CPU. And the 4-core GPU, the basic style GPU obviously lacks one core.
At present, it can be roughly seen that Apple intends to adopt a “bionic processor differentiation strategy” for the iPhone, to make the difference between the two iPhone models more obvious. In the past, the iPhone 13 series, in addition to the lens, LiDAR, 120Hz high-brush screen, memory and In addition to the differences in photography function support, starting in 2022, Apple will distinguish the iPhone 14 through the processor.
Using the processor as the differentiation between iPhone models will also bring many advantages. In addition to making consumers more aware of the difference between the basic model and the flagship model, on the other hand, it can also make users who buy Pro models feel that, It’s worth the money. After all, the flagship and basic models used the same processor in the past, and the performance difference was not obvious. Many users who did not pursue new functions would choose to buy a cheaper basic iPhone instead.
This adjustment is probably related to the increase in the price of TSMC, the leading wafer foundry. After all, the average price of advanced processes has been adjusted a lot, which indirectly affects the cost of Apple’s components. If the original iPhone price is to remain unchanged, then The basic iPhone 14 continues to use the previous generation A15 bionic chip, which can greatly reduce the cost of the chip.
Multiple sources pointed out that Apple found that sales of the 5.4-inch iPhone mini have not been as good as expected, and will cancel the iPhone 14 mini model plan and replace it with the larger 6.1-inch iPhone 14 Max, which also means that the iPhone 14 series this fall will only have Available in 6.1″ and 6.7″ sizes.
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