Just two days ahead of Apple unveiling the iPhone 14 lineup, The Wall Street Journal's Tim Higgins reports that the lower-end iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus models will be equipped with an "enhanced version" of the A15 Bionic chip.
The report does not provide any additional details about the chip, but there has been speculation that the standard iPhone 14 models will be equipped with the iPhone 13 Pro's higher-end A15 chip with a five-core GPU for up to 25% faster graphics performance. In the standard iPhone 13 models, the A15 chip has a four-core GPU.
Improved graphics performance would likely be the only change to the A15 chip in the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, as the chip has the same 6-core CPU and 16-core Neural Engine in both the iPhone 13 and the iPhone 13 Pro.
In line with information shared by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo back in March, the report claims that only the iPhone 14 Pro models will be upgraded with Apple's latest A16 chip for faster CPU performance. This would mark the first time that Apple limits its latest chip to the Pro models as part of an annual refresh of its flagship iPhone lineup, resulting in even more differentiation between the standard and Pro models.
Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max during a special event at Steve Jobs Theater on Wednesday. Many new features are expected for the Pro models, including an always-on display with a new pill-shaped notch replacement, an upgraded 48-megapixel Wide lens, faster RAM, and more.
