The base iPhone 18 and the new, thinner, lighter model may not feature a 2nm SoC and WMCM technology, which will be featured on the iPhone 18 Pro and Fold.
A few days ago, we reported that iPhones would be the first products to feature a SoC based on WMCM technology. 2nm engraving. As usual, Apple turned to the foundry TSMC for its chips. These will also benefit from the new WMCM (Wafer-Level Multi-Chip Module) packaging, allowing the RAM to be soldered at the same level as the CPU, GPU, and NPU, for better performance and improved energy efficiency.
This information from Jeff Pu, from the analysis firm GF Securities, is now corroborated by the China Times. The media outlet specifies that the A20 chip, which will include all these new features, would only be planned for the iPhone 18 Pro models and for the iPhone Fold expected next year. The iPhone 18 and iPhone 18 Air (the thin and light phone that will replace the iPhone Plus) would be deprived of it.
A 2nm chip and 12GB of RAM for the iPhone 18 Pro
Two options emerge from this premise. Either we will have two new different SoCs, an A20 and an A20 Pro, with the A20 settling for a less advanced architecture, as is currently the case to differentiate the iPhone Pro from the others. Or, the A20 will be the only chip to be launched on this generation, and the standard iPhone 18 would then be equipped with an older SoC, like the A19 Pro in the iPhone 17 Pro.
According to the same source, Apple is not expected to increase the amount of RAM on the iPhone 18 series. For the moment, Apple smartphones come with 8GB of RAM. This is expected to increase to 12GB of RAM this year with the release of the iPhone 17, and the iPhone 18 would also offer 12GB of RAM. iPhones have always had less RAM than Android smartphones. Being more optimized, the system requires fewer resources. But with the arrival of AI functions powered locally at the device level, RAM requirements have recently skyrocketed.
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