Apple A17 Bionic in iPhone 15 Pro may be 3nm chip: What it means

Rumours are rife that the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, slated to arrive later this year, will use the Apple A17 Bionic chipset. This upcoming chip from Apple will likely be based on TSMC’s 3nm fabrication process. A 3nm chip will bring several improvements both in the iPhone’s performance and efficiency, but previous rumours were mostly sporadic. Now, a new report has emerged and it corroborates that Apple would indeed go ahead with the 3nm chip plan. Also Read: iPhone 17 Could Get A Price Hike In India Soon; Here’s What We Know So Far

Korean publication Digitimes (via 9to5Mac) has said that the Pro models of this year’s iPhone series will use TSMC’s 3nm fabricated chip. Apple will likely call it A17 Bionic — as a successive name after A16 Bionic. Since the report is paywalled and only its preview is available, not many details are available. However, it confirms that the upcoming iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro will come with the new chip technology. Also Read: iPhone Air Becomes More Affordable With Up To Rs 13,000 Off In Black Friday Sale

But what would this new technology mean for you? Also Read: Why Smartphone Makers Are Suddenly Backing Away From Super-Thin Designs

For the past three generations, Apple has stuck to the 5nm process for its processors. Sure, there were marginal improvements in each successive chip generation, but since the architecture was the same, not much could be done in terms of enhancing performance or efficiency. That means the A14 Bionic, A15 Bionic, and A16 Bionic were more or less the same, except for graphics performance that relied on the number of cores.

How will a decreasing distance in a chip materialise into better performance and efficiency, though? The nanometre is the unit of distance, so 5nm signifies the distance of 5nm between transistors on the chip, while 3nm means a 3-nanometre distance. The smaller the distance, the better the performance and efficiency of the chip since data can travel faster between transistors.

A faster relay of data between transistors means faster performance and less consumption of energy at the same time. A 3nm chip would focus on battery life improvement as much as improved performance. But not all iPhone models will take advantage of the A17 Bionic. This year, Apple is likely to widen the gap between the Pro and non-Pro models even further, and that would include different choices of chipsets.

While the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max (or Ultra?) will likely use the A17 Bionic, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus may be stuck with last year’s A16 Bionic chipset. There will certainly be a difference in the kind of performance each set of iPhones would have to offer.