Apple’s A16 chip: How much faster will the iPhone 14 Pro actually be?

Each year, we take a look at the trajectory of Apple’s A-series silicon (which premieres in iPhones and is often used in iPads) in order to get an idea of how the next chip will perform. By combining what we know of state-of-the-art chip manufacturing and packaging processes and Apple’s past improvements, we can generally glean what’s coming from the next system-on-chip (SoC).

This year, as we look ahead to the A16, making this call is harder than ever. The strongest rumours suggest that the A16 will not move forward to a major new manufacturing process node, and that it will only appear in the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max – with the regular iPhone 14 models utilizing the same souped-up A15 in the iPhone 13 Pro models. What’s more, we have to consider the way Apple uses these designs. Prior A-series chips might get a bigger ‘X’ version intended for the iPad Pro, but now that Apple scales the design up to a whole line of M-series chips destined for Macs, including very powerful computers like the Mac Studio, some of those extra cores might make their way into the iPhone processor.

So let’s dive in and attempt to predict the A16, perhaps with a slightly bigger grain of salt than usual. We’re making our best-educated guesses here, but there are more variables