This year, Apple introduced two new chipsets: the A18 and A18 Pro. For the first time, the standard iPhone models, specifically the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus, received a new chipset instead of one from the previous year. A key reason for this change is to support the demanding AI tasks and features under the Apple Intelligence suite, which weren’t possible on the A16 Bionic.
As expected from their names, the A18 Pro powers the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max, while the regular A18 runs in the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus. It’s an interesting twist for the non-Pro iPhone series. After all, they certainly feel more interested in the new technology. Hopefully, Apple will keep this as a standard rather than keep recycling last year’s chipsets on the non-Pro iPhone models. Let’s dive into what the A18 series offers.
Apple A18 Pro
The A18 Pro is built on a second-generation 3nm manufacturing process, making it more refined and efficient. Apple claims the A18 Pro features the “fastest CPU in any smartphone.” It contains 6 cores—two high-performance cores for heavy tasks and four energy-efficient cores. Combined, they deliver 15% better performance than the A17 Pro’s CPU while consuming 20% less power, offering a balance between speed and energy efficiency.
The A18 Pro’s GPU adopts a desktop-class architecture, outperforming its predecessor by 20% and delivering twice the ray-tracing speed. Enhanced memory bandwidth and a larger cache enable the A18 Pro to support advanced media features. These include ProMotion display support, Always-on display functionality, faster USB 3 speeds, and ProRes video recording—features that are exclusive to the Pro models and not available on the regular iPhone models.
The A18 Pro also includes a new image processing unit that enhances camera performance and speeds up data processing for video encoding. Video encoding on the A18 Pro is twice as fast as it was on the A17 Pro, allowing for smoother and more efficient handling of high-quality video content.
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The A18 Pro’s AI capabilities have also seen a significant upgrade. Its Neural Processing Unit (NPU) now boasts 16 cores, capable of performing 35 trillion operations per second, with access to 17% more memory bandwidth. This results in twice the speed and efficiency compared to the previous generation.
A18
The standard A18 chip also benefits from the NPU upgrade, similar to the Pro version. It features a 6-core CPU with the same configuration, delivering a 30% performance increase over last year’s A16 Bionic, which powered the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus. Additionally, it achieves this with 30% less power consumption for the same tasks.
The key difference between the A18 and A18 Pro lies in the GPU and image processing capabilities. The standard A18 lacks the “Advanced media” features found in the Pro, such as ProMotion display support and ProRes video recording. In addition, the A18’s GPU has a 5-core setup instead of the 6-core configuration in the Pro version. Despite this, the A18 still delivers impressive performance, with Apple claiming a 40% improvement in graphics performance over the A16 Bionic, while also using 35% less power.
As is typical with Apple, detailed hardware specs remain under wraps for now. We’ll need to wait a bit longer to learn more about specific details like CPU and GPU clock speeds, memory types, and other specifications.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Apple’s A18 and A18 Pro chipsets bring notable performance improvements, particularly in AI processing, power efficiency, and GPU capabilities. While the A18 Pro offers more advanced features like enhanced media capabilities and superior GPU performance, the standard A18 still delivers impressive gains over its predecessor. As we await further details on the exact hardware specifications, it’s clear that both chipsets set a new standard for power and efficiency in Apple’s iPhone lineup.