Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 14 series in or around September and now a new report suggests that for some of the upcoming models, the company will slightly modify the A15 chip, which is based on the 5nm process, and rebrand it as the A16.
According to GizmoChina, the actual new chip could be labeled as the A16 Pro, which will likely be reserved for the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the 6.1-inch iPhone 14 Pro and the 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Pro Max will get the A16 chip, while the 6.1-inch iPhone 14 and the 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Max will retain the same A15 chip from the iPhone 13 series. Kuo believes all models will have 6GB of memory, the Pro models will use LPDDR5 and the non-Pro will use LPDDR 4X.
The upcoming iPhone 14 Pro models will feature both hole-punch and pill-shaped cutouts near the top of the display. The hole is believed to be for the Face ID dot projector, while the pill-shaped cutout will supposedly house the front camera as well as the Face ID infrared camera at a minimum. The Pro models would come with a big camera upgrade.
Current Pro iPhones ship with a 12MP camera onboard. However, iPhone 14 Pro models will feature a 48MP camera.
Apple has reportedly advised major US carriers to prepare for the launch of eSIM-only smartphones by September this year. It is possible that Apple might remove the physical SIM card slot starting with some iPhone 14 models, rather than some iPhone 15 models as originally rumored.
