Apple will unveil its iPhone 14 lineup on Wednesday, and The Wall Street Journal‘s Tim Higgins reports that the lower-end iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus models in the lineup will be powered by an “enhanced version” of the A15 Bionic chip.
The report jibes with previous claims that the standard iPhone 14 models will be equipped with the iPhone 13 Pro’s higher-end A15 chip with a five-core GPU for up to 25% faster graphics performance. The standard iPhone 13 models sport an A15 chip that has a four-core GPU.
As noted by MacRumors, improved graphics performance would likely be the only change to the A15 chip in the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, as the chip has the same 6-core CPU and 16-core Neural Engine in both the iPhone 13 and the iPhone 13 Pro.
The report agrees with a prediction by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in March, who said that only the iPhone 14 Pro models will be powered by a new A16 chip, which will provide faster performance.
This would be a definite break from tradition for Apple, as the Cupertino company has always used the same chip across all models in the same series.
Kuo’s comments jibed with previous comments by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who said that “beyond trying to make the Pro stand out,” ongoing chip shortages may have contributed to Apple’s decision to limit its upcoming chip to the iPhone 14 Pro models.
However, Kuo said that chip shortages have little to do with Apple’s decision, and instead the Cupertino firm wishes to make the Pro models stand out a bit more for the rest of the pack going forward.
Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max during a media event at Steve Jobs Theater on Wednesday. Stay tuned.