The iPhone 16 lineup is expected to launch in September with several updates compared to last year’s iPhone family. Early rumors suggested that the top-of-the-line iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max models would feature a new A-series processor. Meanwhile, the regular iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus were believed to be equipped with the A17 Pro Bionic chip found in the iPhone 15 Pro models. this year. Now, leaked code from Apple’s backend indicates that Apple plans to use the same A18 processor for the entire iPhone 16 lineup.
Leaked iPhone 16 IDs
Internal code discovered by Nicolas Alvarez (@nicolas09F9) and published by MacRumors has revealed that Apple will release four iPhone models this year that will be powered by the same A18 chip. The identified IDs are iPhone 17.1, iPhone 17.2, iPhone 17.3, iPhone 17.4 and iPhone 17.5. All five start with the same number, which reportedly indicates that Apple plans to use the same chip for them. The fifth discovered could be used for another device, possibly a future version of the iPhone SE.
Apple usually associates the ID with the chip in use. Last year’s iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, which use the A16 Bionic SoC, came with the iPhone 15.4 and iPhone 15.5 IDs. Both the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max based on the A17 Pro Bionic chipset have the iPhone 16.1 and iPhone 16.2 IDs.
If Apple sticks with this familiar ID numbering scheme this year, we can expect all four iPhone 16 models to ship with the same A18 chip. The company may introduce a two-tier system, packing the A18 in the standard models and the A18 Pro chip with different GPU and CPU performance in the iPhone 16 Pro models. We’ve heard several rumors that support these claims.
Apple has yet to reveal any details about future iPhone models. Therefore, all these details should be considered with a pinch of salt.
