Shortly after the launch of the iPhone 16e, it has emerged that the A18 chipset that Apple is using in the phone is different to the one that is being used in the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus. Apple has confirmed that the A18 in the 16e gets four GPU cores instead of the five GPU cores on the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus. This is further down from the six cores in the A18 Pro that powers the 16 Pro and Pro Max. All three different processors have six CPU cores though.
Apple seems to be doing what is called processor binning, which is a quality control step that’s part of the chip manufacturing process. Essentially, chips with cores that aren’t performing to their optimum best end up getting those particular cores deactivated. These chips are then used for less intensive applications. This is fairly common in the smartphone world and it isn’t even the first time Apple has done so.
While this is an important point of difference to note, it will have very little impact on consumers who end up buying the 16e. As the CPU cores are the same, any performance differences will be limited to users who run demanding graphics-intensive tasks. For reference, the A18 Pro has a 15 percent GPU performance advantage over the A18.
The iPhone 16e features the same chassis as the iPhone 14 from two generations ago. However it gets new hardware in the form of the A18 chip, 8GB of RAM, a 6.1-inch OLED display, and a 48MP main camera. Prices start at Rs. 59,990 for the 128GB variant.
