Apple’s new iPhone 6S and 6S Plus haven’t even hit the store shelves yet, and rumors about the next year’s iPhone 7 are already in full swing. Benchmark results show that the iPhone 6S is as powerful as the Retina MacBook. If new reports coming out of China are to believed, next year’s iPhone 7 (or whatever Apple may choose to call it) will be a true beast.
Apple may rope in Intel to produce A9 chips
Citing a message posted on Chinese microblogging site Weibo, G for Games reports that Apple is working on a hexa-core A10 processor. The new chip will be based on 10nm or 14nm technology and may appear in next year’s iPhone. With the new processor, Apple will focus on improving multi-threading. The Cupertino-based tech giant may rope in Intel along with the usual players Samsung and TSMC to manufacture A10.
The new report comes about a week after supply chain sources told Taiwanese website Digitimes that TSMC will be the sole supplier of the next-gen chip. The last week’s report added that A10 will be based on 16nm technology. In contrast, G for Games says it will be based on 10nm or 14nm process technology. Neither report is confirmed.
How Apple plans to make the iPhone 7 slimmer
The iPhone 6S with A9 processor has proved to be more powerful than the iPad Air 2. So, it’s safe to assume that the A9X in iPad Pro will be even better. And the A10 chip in iPhone 7 will be yet more powerful and efficient. BGR says the A-series chip could soon reach a level where it might make a jump from mobile to MacBooks. Apple was already reportedly considering switching from Intel and ARM processors for MacBooks.
The iPhone 6S features a 1.8GHz dual-core A9 processor with 2GB RAM. Apple claims that A9 is 70% faster than the previous generation A8 chips found in the iPhone 6. Another report from TechRadar claims that Apple is planning to make the iPhone 7 the slimmest iPhone ever by using a smaller headphone jack. The tech giant has patented a technology to shrink down the headphone jack from 3.5 mm to just 2 mm. The company calls it the “D jack,” and it may appear in the next-gen iPhone.
