Affiliate Disclosure
If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Read our ethics policy.

Apple's A15 processor may be 'enhanced' for the iPhone 14

Last updated

As predictions continue that Apple will keep its new A16 processor exclusive to the iPhone 14 Pro models, a new rumor says the regular iPhone 14 will use an "enhanced" A15.

It's long been reported that Apple is going to have different processors in its regular and pro versions of the iPhone 14. It's believed that only the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max will get the newest A16 processor, and it's been presumed that this means the iPhone 14 will stay on last year's A15.

A new and extremely limited report claims that this may not be quite correct. According to the Wall Street Journal, although the iPhone 14 and what may be called the iPhone 14 Plus will indeed use the A15 processor, it won't be the same as the one in the iPhone 13 range.

"The base models will get an enhanced version of the current A15 processor," says the publication, in total. There is no more detail, nor any information about the provenance of the report.

Monday's report is far from the first one that's suggested that the iPhone 14 processor will be better than the same processor in the iPhone 13. Predictions of 6GB RAM for the entire lineup have been made for some time. It's not clear why the report implies that there's more to it than just that.

If the reports of reserving the year's new processor for the Pro models is correct, this will mark the first time that Apple has done it. Previously one selling point, albeit also one thing that made choosing an iPhone model difficult, was that every phone in each year's range had the same processor.



7 Comments

entropys 13 Years · 4316 comments

A15Z.

Resale will suck.

Previously one selling point, albeit also one thing that made choosing an iPhone model difficult, was that every phone in each year's range had the same processor. 

For real? Come on Appleinsider. All with the same processor meant you didn’t have to worry about performance differences, and just focus on features and screen size. Now performance will also be a consideration in addition to features and screen size.

It will be all about the upsell to higher margin phones.

Stabitha_Christie 3 Years · 582 comments

In the past when Apple didn’t make larger jumps with their processors year over year they appended an x to the name and called it a day. Much like they used to add an s to the phone name. So it seems like the mostly likely outcome with be something like the A15 BionicX and the A16 Bionic. That allows them to differentiate the 14 and 14 Pro while sidestepping the marketing issues of keeping the same processor year o over year. 

mattinoz 9 Years · 2489 comments

13 pro had one more Gpu core than 13.
so what 14 gets the same 6/5 core A15 as the A13 pro?
and what A16 is also 6/5 core but new cores or are we expecting 6/6 ?

canukstorm 11 Years · 2744 comments

mattinoz said:
13 pro had one more Gpu core than 13.
so what 14 gets the same 6/5 core A15 as the A13 pro?
and what A16 is also 6/5 core but new cores or are we expecting 6/6 ?

If I remember correctly, the 13 Pro had more RAM (6GB) as well.

techconc 7 Years · 275 comments

If true, an "enhanced" version can literally mean anything.  It could mean that it's getting the 5 core GPU version.  It could mean that maybe an interface for faster ram (LPDDR4 to LPDDR5), etc.  Maybe just the ISP is updated, etc..