Rumor: Apple chooses cheaper production process for soc iPhone 16 and 16 Plus

Apple has reportedly chosen TSMC’s cheaper N3E process for the next generation of SoCs that will be used in the regular iPhone 16 series. According to the source, the company does this to save costs.

A source on Weibo who claims to have worked in the chip sector for more than 25 years, says that Apple will make a ‘normal’ A17 SoC based on TSMC’s N3E process. The leaker previously released this information, but this has now been further explained according to MacRumors trustworthy. The current A17 Pro chip in the iPhone 15 Pro series still uses the standard N3B node. However, this process is reportedly too expensive and Apple will therefore use the cheaper process next year

Both processes are used to make 3nm chips, but the N3E node cannot produce the same transistor density as the N3B. That is why the suspected A17 SoC for the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus is relatively less energy efficient than the suspected A18 Pro, which will probably be used for the iPhone 16 Pro series. The N3B node, on the other hand, reportedly has worse yields, causing prices to be slightly higher.

For the time being, Apple itself has not yet announced the iPhone 16 product family. In fact, the iPhone 15 has been out for less than two weeks at the time of writing. There is therefore a chance that the plans stated are incorrect or incomplete. It is not unusual for the production facilities of companies like TSMC to be reserved well before the release of a product.

It is not the first time that it has been suggested that the iPhone 16 series will make full use of 3nm chips. The A16 Bionic in the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus is made on 5nm.