Whether or not new smartphones need faster chips is a debate for another day, but being crowned the speediest phone certainly has its charm. For the longest time, iPhones have managed a performance lead over top Android flagships, but the iPhone 16 Pro’s A18 Pro might not be powerful enough to continue that winning streak.
For users who use their phones mostly for browsing the web, texting friends, and using social media apps, most smartphones, including affordable ones, are sufficiently powerful.
So while speed might not be a key consideration for most folks, some need all the speed they can get. Besides, with many of us sticking to our phones for longer and repairs becoming easier, it makes sense to go for a phone that will be able to keep up with future apps.
A18 Pro will only be 10 percent faster than the A17 Pro
Nguyen Phi Hung, a new X leaker on the block, claims that the Apple A18 Pro will be barely faster than the A17 Pro, the chip that powers the iPhone 15 Pro. The A18 Pro will allegedly fuel the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max and per the leak, it will only be 10 percent faster than the A17 Pro.
Since the leaker doesn’t have an established track record, it’s best to take this rumor with a pinch of salt. That said, it’s in line with a recent rumor that said the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, which will power next year’s Android flagships, will have more processing power than the A18 Pro.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will likely be a huge jump over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 because it will be based on the 3nm process and use new custom cores.
Since the A17 Pro was also a 3nm chip, it’s understandable that the A18 Pro won’t be considerably faster than it. Besides, Apple already has a comfortable lead over other chips, so even a small performance bump might be enough to maintain the edge.
Apple is also rumored to put a great emphasis on AI performance and is expected to arm the chip with a new Neural Engine with more cores. This would be a substantial upgrade as the Neural Engine has stuck with 16 cores since 2020’s iPhone 12.
