UPDATED 22:14 EDT / MARCH 13 2022

APPS

Apple may feature A16 chip only in higher-end iPhone 14 models

Famed Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has some new predictions for the upcoming iPhone 14 range, and they may disappoint some Apple Inc. fans.

Kuo predicts four new iPhones will be launched in the second half of the year: the iPhone 14 at 6.1 inches, iPhone 14 Max at 6.7 inches, iPhone 14 Pro at 6.1 inches and iPhone 14 Pro Max at 6.7 inches.

That’s not surprising, but what powers the phones are. Kuo is predicting that only the 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max will get the A16, Apple’s latest processor, while the first two models will be powered by the A15, found in the models released last year.

All four models are expected to come with 6 gigabytes of RAM, but the Pro phones will get the faster LPDDR 5 versus the slower LPDDR x4 one the lower iPhones.

It’s notable that the A15 chip, first featured in the iPhone 13 range, was also featured on the new iPhone SE announced earlier this month. If the iPhone 14 and iPhone Max get the same chip, Apple midrange phones will share similar internals as its cheapest model.

It’s possible that Apple could use different chips in different models, although it has been a long time since it last did. 9to5 Mac reported today that the last time Apple did this was in 2013 when the iPhone 5S received the A7 chip, but the cheaper iPhone 5C received the then-one-year-old A6 chip.

Previous predictions for the iPhone 14 include those suggesting that at least some of the new phones may include a hole-punch display design. The hole-punch display has become a standard feature in many Android phones, whereas Apple has stuck so far with a more dated notch design at the top of the screen.

If Apple does go ahead with a hole-punch design, it may initially feature only on the Pro models, giving them another point of differentiation from the cheaper models.

A previous Kuo suggestion, that the iPhone 14 range will include an in-display Touch ID, was pushed back by the analyst to the iPhone 15 range in 2023.

The new iPhone 14 range is expected to be released around September.

Image: Apple

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