Apple Compared Its A18 Chipset to the Two-Year-Old A16 Bionic, Hinting at Minimal Performance Gains Over the A17 Pro

With the recent unveiling of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, one of the standout features is the new A18 chipset powering both devices. Built on TSMC’s second-generation 3nm process, the A18 offers improvements over the A17 Pro used in last year’s iPhone 15 Pro models. However, when Apple showcased the performance benchmarks, it curiously compared the A18 to the older A16 Bionic, bypassing a direct comparison with the A17 Pro. Let’s dive into why Apple might have taken this approach and what the A18 chipset brings to the table.

Why Compare to the A16 Bionic?

It’s likely that Apple chose the A16 Bionic for the comparison because the performance difference between the A18 and A17 Pro might not be substantial enough to create a significant marketing impact. The A18’s 6-core CPU (with two performance and four efficiency cores) and 5-core GPU are capable, but the leap in performance between the A17 Pro and A18 might be minor.

Performance Boosts: CPU and GPU

The A18 comes with a 16-core Neural Engine, enhancing Apple Intelligence and AI-driven tasks both on-device and in the cloud. According to Apple’s metrics, the A18 is up to 30% faster in CPU tasks and 40% faster in GPU benchmarks compared to the A16 Bionic. While the A18 Pro offers better power efficiency—using 30% less power than the iPhone 15—it’s noteworthy that Apple didn’t juxtapose these improvements with the A17 Pro, likely indicating minimal differences between the two.

Strategic Comparisons to iPhone 15 Models

Apple did choose to compare the iPhone 16 lineup with the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, which feature the A16 Bionic rather than the A17 Pro. This suggests Apple wants to highlight the leap from the standard iPhone 15 models to the iPhone 16, rather than focusing on the Pro models’ chipset advancements. It was also mentioned during the iPhone 16 Pro launch that the A18 Pro is only 15% faster than the A17 Pro, further supporting the theory that the performance gains might not be as dramatic.