On September 10, Apple launched the iPhone 16 series, marking a return to offering the same generation of A18 chip on new products, unlike recent years when the company separated chips into two generations. While both the A18 and A18 Pro are part of the same generation, they have slightly different versions. The A18 is equipped on the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus, while the A18 Pro is found on the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max. Both chips are manufactured using the same 3nm process as the A17 Pro from the previous year.
If you’re curious about the differences between the A18 and A18 Pro, you may find that Apple appears to be avoiding direct comparisons between the two chip versions. Instead, the company is emphasizing the improvements of the A18 over the A16 Bionic found on the standard iPhone 15. Apple claims that the A18 offers up to 40% faster performance and up to 35% lower power consumption compared to the A16 Bionic.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max, 256GB, Blue Titanium – Unlocked (Renewed Premium)
The A18 is designed with artificial intelligence (AI) as the main focus, featuring a Neural Engine with 16 cores. The chip includes a 6-core CPU and 5-core GPU, with an improved memory system delivering a 17% increase in available bandwidth for demanding applications.
On the other hand, the A18 Pro is essentially the same chip as the A18 but with several important upgrades, including a larger cache for increased overall performance, a 6-core GPU, and additional tools for media processing, enabling high-refresh-rate ProMotion rendering, ProRes video capture, and advanced codecs.
Apple has provided direct comparison numbers only for the A18 Pro and A17 Bionic found on the iPhone 15 Pro, citing a 15% faster CPU, 20% faster GPU (with up to 3x ray tracing performance), and 20% lower power consumption. The A18 Pro equipped with the iPhone 16 Pro features a 16-core Neural Engine capable of performing 35,000 billion calculations per second.
With all iPhone 16 models featuring Apple’s latest generation chip, users no longer need to feel too pressured to choose between the regular version and the Pro version.
