Although the iPhone 15 series has just been released, it is no surprise that news about the next generation of the iPhone 16 series has begun to come out, which is why netizens jokingly called the "one-year" iPhone conference.
There have been two recent news stories about the iPhone 16 series, involving chips and body design.
A17
This year, the iPhone 15 Pro model is equipped with the A17 Pro Bionic chip for the first time, which is also the first time that the iPhone chip has introduced the "Pro" suffix. Since there is now the A17 Pro, it is very likely that Apple will then launch its standard version, the A17 chip.
Blogger @Mobile phone chip master, who has 25 years of integrated circuit design experience, pointed out that Apple's A17 Pro chip is manufactured using TSMC's N3B process, but it is reported that Apple plans to use a lower-cost N3E process on the standard A17 chip designed for iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus next year.
It is worth knowing that N3B is a 3nm node created by TSMC in cooperation with Apple, while N3E is a more economical node that most other TSMC customers will adopt. N3E has fewer EUV layers and lower transistor density than N3B, making it slightly less efficient. However, N3B has a longer lead time for mass production than N3E and a much lower yield.
In addition, analyst Jeff Pu also confirmed the news that the A17 chip will be manufactured using the N3E process in 2024, and predicted that the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will be upgraded to 8GB of running memory. At present, the iPhone 15 Standard Edition still continues to use 6GB of memory, while only the 15 Pro series uses 8GB of memory.
Next year's iPhone 16 standard version screen will also support ProMotion adaptive refresh rate.
New button
Recently, foreign media MacRumors shared reliable news pointed out that next year's iPhone 16 full series of models are expected to introduce a new button, Apple temporarily called it "Capture Button", codenamed "Project Nova", may become one of the main selling points of the iPhone 16 series.
It is reported that the "Capture Button" is designed as a capacitive button that will be located on the side of the iPhone's power button, but it is unclear what the specific purpose of the button will be.
Unlike traditional mechanical buttons, capacitive buttons don't actually move when pressed (similar to the Home button on iPhone 8), providing haptic feedback through the Taptic Engine. In addition, the news states that the button also has a force sensor, so it is expected to achieve different functions depending on the degree of pressing.
It can be confirmed that in the early development stage of the iPhone 15 Pro, Apple's "Bongo project" project was designed to achieve capacitive volume and power buttons, but due to unsatisfactory test results and many hardware problems, it was finally canceled in the EVT development stage and continued to use the familiar mechanical buttons.
Unlike the "Bongo project", which is limited to the Pro series, the "Capture Button" is predicted to appear in the full range of iPhone 16 models, including the standard iPhone 16 and 16 Plus. But Apple also created a configuration without a "Capture Button," which is expected to serve as an alternative in the development phase.
In addition to the new "Capture Button," the iPhone 16 series is expected to introduce capacitive operating buttons, internally codenamed "Project Atlas," which feature a design similar to the "Capture Button," using strain gages and reluctance motors to provide the necessary haptic feedback.
In addition, MacRumors also said that the rear camera module of the standard version of the iPhone 16 will be redesigned, similar to the vertical arrangement of the iPhone 12. The screen of the iPhone 16 Pro model will increase from 6.1 inches and 6.7 inches to 6.3 inches and 6.9 inches, respectively.
At present, the iPhone 16 series is still in the early stages of development, so the above rumors can only be used to understand Apple's research and development direction, and do not represent the final design.