The A16 Processor Inside the iPhone 14 Is Going to Be Groundbreaking

• The iPhone 14 will be powered by a 3nm processor, making it far more efficient than any of the previous generations.
• The rumors are in line with the plans that TSMC and Samsung have previously presented, but nothing is certain yet.
• The iPhone 12 is reportedly finishing the “Engineering Validation and Testing” and will enter production in July.

At this moment, everyone is holding their breath for the launch of the iPhone 12, a device that is going to bring a rich set of improvements and additions over the previous generation. At the same time, the first rumors about the design of the iPhone 13 have begun to appear online, giving away details about the ports that are to be used. And now, we have the first estimations about iPhone 14, focusing on the A16 processor that is going to power the device, which is planned for launch in Q3 2022.

More specifically, rumors talk about a groundbreaking processing unit that is going to be a lot more powerful and more energy-efficient than anything else we’ve had thus far. The A14 that we’ll see on iPhone 12 is going to be built on the 5nm process, and this is why it kicked the 7nm A13’s ass in the first benchmarks. The A15 is expected to be an incremental update, still based on the 5nm process, but incorporating several optimizations that will give it notable advantages and make it a compelling reason to consider an upgrade. However, the A16 will most likely be built on 3nm, so everything else will be left far behind.

The semiconductor fabrication process is a fundamental way to achieve new levels of performance and efficiency, as it basically allows the cramming of more transistors inside a chip. The level of 3 nm is still in an experimental stage, as not even test runs have been yet carried out. However, TSMC and Samsung have already laid out their plans on when they’ll initiate mass production of 3nm chips, and the timeline puts the event at the beginning of 2022. That moment coincides with the preparation of the iPhone 14, so in theory, Apple’s phone in 2022 should be powered by a thrilling 3nm processor. Of course, there’s a long distance to cover until then, and it’s good to remember that all of this information is based on rumors and expert estimations.

For now, you may focus on the launch of the iPhone 12 series, which will include four models and is expected to enter production next month. The latest leaked specs data reveal that full-spectrum 5G will only be supported on the higher-end models, while the price of the lower-end 5.4” device with the 128GB of internal memory storage is going to be $649.