iPhone 16e’s A18 processor: Same name, slightly different game

Apple iPhone 16e

Apple has finally unveiled the iPhone 16e, which is the fourth and cheapest member of the iPhone 16 series. It is the spiritual successor to the iPhone SE (2022) and carries similar specifications as the flagship iPhone 16 lineup, including being powered by the latest Apple chipset, the A18. In theory, this is the same chip that powers the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus. However, now according to a new report, the smartphone is said to have a binned version of the A18 chipset which might potentially affect the device's performance.

According to a report by 9to5Mac, Apple's latest affordable smartphone, the iPhone 16E, uses a binned version of the iPhone 16's A18 chipset. A look at the technical specifications of the iPhone 16e reveals that it uses a hexa-core CPU and a quad-core GPU. In comparison, if we look at the CPU and GPU core count of the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus, it uses a similar CPU with a more powerful five-core GPU.

The iPhone 16E with one less GPU core is not likely to offer inferior performance in real-world tasks compared to the iPhone 16. However, users will likely see slower graphical performance in benchmarks and more demanding gaming titles. Moreover, Apple is yet to reveal if this change has any impact on the iPhone 16e's performance compared to other latest iPhones.

This move is said to be a result of a process known as chip binning, which is a commonly used process used by various OEMs during a chip's fabrication process, where the higher performing SoCs are kept for the premium devices, and the cheaper devices with fewer cores use less optimal or underclocked chipsets. This isn’t the first time Apple has used a binned processor in a product, as the iPad Mini 7 also uses an inferior version of the A17 Pro chipset with one less GPU core compared to the original SoC used on the iPhone 15 Pro smartphones.