Apple Introduces A18, A18 Pro Chipsets With the iPhone 16 Series

The A18 and A18 Pro chipsets are built on the second generation of the 3nm process technology.

Written by Akash Dutta, Edited by Manas Mitul | Updated: 10 September 2024 10:45 IST

Apple Introduces A18, A18 Pro Chipsets With the iPhone 16 Series

Photo Credit: Apple

The A18 Pro chipset offers a 17 percent increase in total system memory bandwidth compared to A17 Pro

Highlights

The A18 SoC is equipped with a six-core CPU and five-core GPU
The A18 Pro chipset comes with a 16-core Neural Engine with 35 TOPS
Apple said the six-core CPU is 15 percent faster than its predecessor

Apple launched the iPhone 16 series at the “It's Glowtime” event on Monday. The smartphone series, comprising the base model, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and the iPhone 16 Pro Max, were introduced with many new hardware features and Apple Intelligence integration. This was also the first time the Cupertino-based tech giant equipped the series with two new system-on-a-chip (SoC) dubbed A18 and A18 Pro. The company claimed improved performance, better gaming, and the capability to run large language models (LLMs) with the new chipsets.

Apple Debuts A18, A18 Pro Chipsets

At the event, the company highlighted that the base and the Plus models will be equipped with the A18 chipset, whereas the A18 Pro SoC will power the Pro models. The addition of the A18 processor for the non-Pro models means the successor to the iPhone 15 (powered by A16 Bionic) has entirely skipped the A17 Pro chip. Apple claimed that this jump would result in vastly improved performance across different resource-intensive tasks.

Both chipsets are built on the second generation of the 3nm process, first seen with the A17 Pro. There is a 16-core Neural Engine onboard which is said to run AI tasks at 35 TOPS as well as a six-core CPU and a five-core GPU.

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Apple claims that the A18 chipset's six-core CPU is 30 percent faster than the A16 Bionic in the predecessor. It is also said to be 30 percent more power efficient. Further, the iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Plus are said to get 40 percent faster and 35 percent power efficiency GPU performance than the non-Pro iPhone 15 models. These devices are also getting hardware-accelerated ray tracing capabilities.

In the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, the A18 Pro chipset is claimed to have a 17 percent increase in total system memory bandwidth, which will enable the devices to undertake complex AI tasks. Compared to the A17 Pro, the new SoC is said to be 20 percent faster in GPU performance, and 15 percent faster in CPU performance. It is also said to be 20 percent more power efficient.

Additionally, the A18 Pro also offers improved ray tracing with “realistic light sources and reflections” as well as “more consistent frame rates”. The chipset also powers the Always-On and ProMotion technology on the device. Additionally, it enables faster USB 3 speeds and ProRes video recording.

A new ISP and video encoder processes twice the amount of data for faster video encoding and pro workflows.

iPhone 16

KEY SPECS
NEWS

Display 6.10-inch

Processor Apple A18

Front Camera 12-megapixel

Rear Camera 48-megapixel + 12-megapixel

RAM 8GB

Storage 128GB, 256GB, 512GB

OS iOS 18

Resolution 1179x2556 pixels

More Apple mobiles Apple mobiles price in India

iPhone 16 Plus

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Design
Display
Software
Performance
Battery Life
Camera
Value for Money

Good
Stunning display
Solid build quality and lovely colour options
Battery life is bonkers on this one
Excellent for gaming and performance (in general)
Improved cameras

Bad
Still offers a 60Hz refresh rate and misses out on AOD (always-on display)
No fast charging
Comes with USB 2
No Apple Intelligence features out of the box

Read detailed Apple iPhone 16 Plus review

Display 6.70-inch

Processor Apple A18

Front Camera 12-megapixel

Rear Camera 48-megapixel + 12-megapixel

RAM 8GB

Storage 128GB, 256GB, 512GB

OS iOS 18

Resolution 1290x2796 pixels

More Apple mobiles Apple mobiles price in India

iPhone 16 Pro

KEY SPECS
NEWS

Display 6.30-inch

Processor Apple A18 Pro

Front Camera 12-megapixel

Rear Camera 48-megapixel + 12-megapixel + 48-megapixel

RAM 8GB

Storage 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB

OS iOS 18

Resolution 1206x2622 pixels

More Apple mobiles Apple mobiles price in India

iPhone 16 Pro Max

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Design
Display
Software
Performance
Battery Life
Camera
Value for Money

Good
Massive screen size
Brilliant display
Performance beast
Camera Control is a boon
Fantastic battery life

Bad
Big phone for one-hand use
Expensive
No Apple Intelligence at launch
Slow-wired charging support

Read detailed Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max review

Display 6.90-inch

Processor Apple A18 Pro

Front Camera 12-megapixel

Rear Camera 48-megapixel + 12-megapixel + 48-megapixel

RAM 8GB

Storage 256GB, 512GB, 1TB

OS iOS 18

Resolution 1320x2868 pixels

More Apple mobiles Apple mobiles price in India

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Further reading: iPhone 16, Apple event, iPhone 16 Pro, Apple, Chipsets

Akash Dutta Email Akash Dutta

Akash Dutta is a Senior Sub Editor at Gadgets 360. He is particularly interested in the social impact of technological developments and loves reading about emerging fields such as AI, metaverse, and fediverse. In his free time, he can be seen supporting his favourite football club - Chelsea, watching movies and anime, and sharing passionate opinions on food. More