A16 Bionic Vs A17 Pro: What does it mean to buy an iPhone in 2024? ft. JonInAsia
Now is the perfect time to bookmark this post if you’re in the market for a new iPhone or just want to offer your friends or family some recommendations on what iPhone to buy. We are about to dive deep into the CPU Performance & Efficiency, Gaming potential, Camera capabilities, and other exciting features of the latest iPhones. Also, you have my word that I shall utter no Tech jargon for no reason, with no ratio. PS: You can also finally argue with Apple Store employees at the Genius Bar, after reading this.
Introduction
It’s been about five months since Apple introduced its latest and greatest iPhone lineup. While most people love talking about specs and hardware changes (in which case you should check out this story where I compare the iPhone 15 Pro to my 13 Pro), I want to dive deeper today into the processor within the phone. Apple has shuffled some things up with the launch of the iPhone 14 lineup where the base models got the last year’s SOC while the Pro models got the newest SOC.
They continued this trend for their 2023 iPhone lineup too and so we have the iPhone 15 models getting A16 Bionic while the iPhone 15 Pro models got the A17 Pro SOC. You are right to wonder why there is no A17 Bionic chip in any iPhone model. We will get to that soon.
But, I don’t want to make this a boring deep dive for all the non-techies out there and I didn’t trust myself completely to not utter some tech jargon here and there so I decided to invite my friend and a fellow Medium author, JonInAsia to keep me accountable as I go along.
Whenever I get too comprehensive, too fast about some tech, Jon is going to intervene and ask me questions. You will notice his questions in a pretty bold font (hard to ignore) in every section of this story while I reply in a non-bold font (and maybe italics or bold italics to mention some “Apple Marketing jargon” here and there). Thanks for joining me, Jon!
Feel free to skip around these sections and read what matters the most to you. Here’s an index of the entire story:
Node Process: Is my iPhone going to heat up less?
CPU: Am I getting better at multitasking?
GPU: Better Gaming Performance?
New Engines: The ACTUAL new stuff on the new iPhones
Camera Capabilities: Are Photos and Videos going to look better?
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Node Process: Is my iPhone going to heat up less?
The A16 Bionic is designed on a 4nm fabrication process while the A17 Pro is designed on a 3nm process.
How much does a nanometer shrink in the fabrication process matter in real life? The Physics of SOCs says that smaller nodes equal lesser power consumption and hence improved energy efficiency and reduced heat generation. Makes sense since smaller processing components would take less current to operate on the smaller surface area/distance and hence generate less heat.
On the more technical side of things, Apple has used TSMC’s N4P process for their 4nm A16 Bionic Chip and TSMC’s N3B process for their 3nm A17 Pro chip. While Apple advertised the A16 as a 4nm SOC, TSMC’s N4P process is only an enhanced-performance node in the extended 5nm family. It has 4% higher performance and 7% higher efficiency than the N5P process used in the iPhone 13 lineup.
The N3B Process used for A17 Pro isn’t the best and only option for a 3nm process — there is also an N3P, N3E, N3X, and N3S process. Among these, the N3E is pretty economical — offering better efficiency and even performance at a lower cost. It is also scalable so it can be used in future chip designs like the A18 or A19.
So why use an N3B process for A17Pro? Probably because that was the only process ready for mass production at that time.
This means if Apple switches to N3E for their 2024 iPhone lineup, they will have to redesign the SOC once again just like they did for the A17 Pro. And maybe now, the whole “Pro” naming in the chip makes more sense — there is a non-pro SOC in the making, probably with an N3E process.
What does it mean for iPhone buyers? A smaller SOC that produces less heat would optimally make a great iPhone in anyone’s hand and the chip being surrounded by a titanium body of the Pro models only makes this argument better.
The A16 Bionic had 16 Billion transistors while the A17 Pro now has 19 Billion transistors. This is compared to A15 Bionics which had 15 Billion Transistors. These numbers alone don’t mean anything which is why we need to dive deeper into the working of the CPU & GPU cores and understand what’s changed.
CPU: Am I getting better at multitasking?
Both the A16 and the A17 Pro chip have a 6-core CPU.
Oh cool, let’s move ahead!
No, wait! There’s more —
Remember, how we talked about Apple moving to a smaller chip design — from 5nm on iPhone 13 to 4nm and 3nm now? Turns out, smaller chips can house more transistors on them and hence achieve higher performance.
Among the six CPU cores on these chips, two are performance cores (P-cores) while the rest four are efficiency cores (E-cores). Another reason why they are said to have a 2+4 design. Until 2022, Apple had a sweet nomenclature for their CPU microarchitecture, calling the A16 Bionic’s CPU P-cores ‘Everest’ and its E-cores ‘Sawtooth’ (Likewise, Avalanche and Blizzard for the A15 Bionic’s microarchitecture).
That naming scheme itself seems to have dropped for the A17 Pro which didn’t get any such cool names.
I am disappointed the new CPU cores didn’t get any cool name however, let’s continue. The maximum clock rate of the performance cores has increased from 3.46 GHz on the A16 to 3.78 GHz on the A17 Pro. The ones on A15 went up to 3.23 GHz, for reference. Does that help? Of course, not. But neither does Apple tell us that the A17 Pro has 10% better performance. Which is why I am writing this story.
What does it mean for iPhone buyers? Just keeping in mind the CPU core performance, I wouldn’t choose the A17 Pro over the A16. Also, to show your disappointment against the dropping of the cool microarchitecture nomenclature, consider buying a non-pro iPhone just to spite Apple.
GPU: Better Gaming Performance?
Better how though?
Brace yourself for the biggest change in the new A17 Pro chip design — Hardware accelerated ray-tracing is finally here! Before that let’s talk a bit about A16 Bionics’s GPU too.
The A16 Bionic has a 5-core GPU design that has 50% more memory bandwidth than the A15’s GPU. The underlying architecture of the GPU is the same as the A15 with minimal to no changes at all to GPU EUs (Execution Units) and ALUs (Arithmetic Logical Units).
Why do you say ‘minimal to no changes’ instead of either one? Because, if you remember the A15 Bionic had functional binning wherein Apple gave the Pro-model iPhones an extra GPU core than the Non-Pro model iPhones (5 Vs 4).
With the A17 Pro, Apple is said to have designed a ‘Pro-Class GPU’ or to put it in layman’s terms — they are proud to have designed the shader architecture themselves and want to show it off to the world. Fair enough.
Also, it has one extra core taking the count up to 6 GPU cores now. This is said to have made it 20% faster with improved efficiency. This is also where the majority of the added 3 billion transistors (of the 19 billion) on A17 Pro could have been used.
But most importantly, the Pro-model iPhones now get Mesh Shaders and Hardware Accelerated Ray Tracing. I am no gamer but if you are, I can already see the smile on your face that the increased FPS and better visuals on your favourite game.
What does it mean for iPhone buyers? You can’t miss out on the iPhone 15 Pro models if you are a heavy gamer. Otherwise, you are okay with a Non-Pro-Class GPU like the one on the A16 Bionic in the base iPhone 15 models (or even 14 Pro).
Neural Engine: More AI Stuff?
Once again, we have a 16-core neural engine on both chips. Just like A15… and A14.
So it’s the same neural engine year after year?
No. Despite having the same 16-core neural engine design for the past four generations, a lot has changed in the way it works. Back with A14 Bionic, the neural engine could do just 11 Trillion Operations Per Second (a.k.a 11 TOPS). This increased to 15.8 TOPS with A15 Bionic. 17 TOPS with A16 Bionic. Want to guess the TOPS for A17 Pro? Have a go…
If you guessed around 20 TOPS, you are about to be so…. Wrong!
Because this is where they went really “Pro”. The A17 Pro SOC has a 16-core neural engine with the capability of 35 TOPS.
That’s 35 Trillion Operations Per Second. A little more than double of what we had with A16’s neural engine.
But what does the neural engine even do? To put it in simple terms — it makes machine learning and artificial intelligence involving tasks much more efficient on-device. If you still hate the tech jargon I am throwing at you, just think of FaceID on iPhone — it makes use of the neural engine to identify different data points on your face to authenticate the iPhone’s owner. Or even the new iOS 16 feature that allowed you to pick up subjects from their background in a photo. That’s all machine learning.
This doubling of TOPS within a generation and Apple calling it “up to 2x faster” (compared to what, I don’t know — that’s how vague Apple’s numbers are) could only mean that we are yet to see more machine learning/AI-based capabilities in upcoming iOS version — indeed, the iPhone 15 Pro Models will be the first ones to beta test iOS 18 when it is announced at WWDC’24.
What does it mean for iPhone buyers? If you are heavily interested in AI features that could come with future iOS updates and don’t wish to wait for the next iPhone till fall, the iPhone 15 Pro models with A17 Pro could future-proof you well enough. For others, who don’t care about these potential future updates, the non-pro models should do just fine for you.
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New Engines and Controllers: The ACTUAL new stuff on the new iPhones
The CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine upgrade apart, it’s always the completely new stuff that makes tech interesting. In our case, that would be the new engines and controllers that debut in the A17 Pro SOC.
Let’s talk about the A17 Pro’s new engines first before we go on to the A16 Bionic ones, as those are just a subset of the former.
What are dedicated engines?
Glad you asked! These are special parts built within the processor to work on some special tasks that usually overload the processor. By giving them a dedicated pipeline to work within, they take a significant load off the processor’s CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine. Hence, increasing efficiency.
First off, we finally have a dedicated AV1 decoder to deliver better video quality efficiently — making the iPhone an ideal device for high-quality content consumption/streaming services with reduced bandwidth consumption. And with reduced bandwidth consumption comes less power usage so you can better preserve your device’s battery. I recommend reading this story from a fellow Medium author if you want to learn more about AV1.
Next, we have a new dedicated ProRes codec engine that would help with encoding and decoding of ProRes videos more efficiently than ever before on an iPhone. This is another huge win for those who use iPhones for cinematography. This also enables Log video recording and some other video capabilities on the iPhone 15 Pro models — check out the next section where we talk more about camera capabilities.
The entire iPhone 15 lineup has USB-C. But the USB-C on the Pro models is special because it is the only one with USB 3.2 data transfer speeds up to 10Gbps while the non-pro models enjoy the same USB 2.0 speed (480Mbps, just as Lightning). This increased speed on Pro models is enabled by a new USB Controller on the A17 Pro.
Then we have a new ‘Pro Display engine’ which is nothing but a new marketing term for the Display Engine that came with the A16 Bionic on iPhone 14 Pro models. The main purpose of this display engine is to handle the adaptive refresh rate (1Hz-120Hz), the Always-On feature, higher peak brightness (up to 2000nits), and finally the entire functioning of the Dynamic Island (animations and all) which is a display on its own.
Last but not least, we have the Improved ISP (Image Signal Processor) on A17 Pro capable of taking 48MP RAW as well as HEIF images. We have also climbed the ladder of HDR support with the introduction of Smart HDR 5 capabilities for both SOCs. The sky can finally look more blue than white in iPhone photos now.
As I said the A16 Bionic has a subset of these features. Particularly, the Display Engine, a somewhat newer ISP (but not as good as the A17 Pro one), and a Photonic Engine.
What does it mean for iPhone buyers? If you use your smartphone as a content consumption device, definitely go for the iPhone 15 Pro Models that have the AV1 decoders in them. It’s a big win. Want an iPhone for cinematography? Pro models are my answer again. Just normal use and quick shots? Stick to the non-pro model.
Camera Capabilities: Are Photos and Videos going to look better?
The Camera is one of the main things people look out for while purchasing smartphones — somewhere before or after battery and display quality, of course. So, let’s break this into two parts — Photos and Video, and talk about what’s changed.
Photos
The new ISP introduced with A16 Bionic performs 4 TOPS and comes with a Photonic Engine coupled with the other powers of A16, it allowed the iPhone 14 Pro models to take 48MP ProRAW images with its main camera.
The improved ISP on the A17 Pro takes it a step further by allowing you to take both 48MP ProRAW as well as 48MP HEIF images. Smart HDR 5 is supported on all iPhone 15 models irrespective of the SOC within.
Videos
The A17 Pro also enables ProRes video recording up to 4K at 60fps with recording to an external SSD. A16 Bionic on 14 Pro models limited this ProRes 4K video to only 30fps. Unfortunately, the A16 Bionic’s presence in the iPhone 15 fails for video as it doesn’t support ProRes or even Macro video recording.
The iPhone 15 Pro models also support Log video recording and the Academy Color Encoding System. And we sure have the new ProRes codecs in A17 Pro to thank.
The Pro models also allow for capturing Spatial Videos (meant to be watched on the Apple Vision Pro). However, this might be more of a software and camera hardware limitation than a SOC feature.
What does it mean for iPhone buyers? If you care for professional video capturing like ProRes and Log — the iPhone 15 Pro models are a must. Otherwise, the base iPhone 15 variants have got enough camera capabilities to take decent photos and video.
Miscellaneous: Can I keep this iPhone for another 5 years?
Some users buy a new phone every two or three years while some others love holding on to their phones for years (until they don’t hold up). For those who love future-proofing their tech, I decided to include this section too in this story to help you decide on some other improvements that might (or might not) matter to certain users in the long term.
Ultra Wideband chip
The A17 Pro as well as the A16 Bionic (on iPhone 15 only, not the 14 model) have upgraded the Ultra Wideband chip to its second generation. This means that the entire iPhone 15 lineup models will now have better Precision Finding for FindMy Friends.
How does this work in real life?
Two phones with these chips will now be able to connect at three times the range as before and say, if you and your friend happen to have these phones and are lost in a huge crowd, you could get back to them with precision finding on FindMy (which was limited only to AirTags before).
RAM
The A17 Pro adds two extra gigabytes of memory to its phones i.e. the iPhone 15 Pro models have 8GB RAM now. The A16 Bionic devices like the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus (and its predecessors) are limited to 6GB RAM.
WiFi
A17 Pro adds support for WiFi 6E. So the only two iPhones to support this newer WiFi standard are the two iPhone 15 Pro models. The rest would be stuck with WiFi 6.
Does that make my home WiFi faster?
WiFi 6E Routers are required to enjoy WiFi 6E speeds with these models. These routers tend to be more expensive than the WiFi 6 routers (at least as of early 2024).
What does it mean for iPhone buyers? Suppose you have the habit of losing your loved ones in crowds. In that case, you need to get yourself as well as them, the latest iPhone 15 model (apparently, hiding AirTags in a living being’s pockets is considered stalking and probably a crime depending on which part of the world you live in).
If you need more RAM to do photo or video editing on your iPhone, get the Pro model. If you really really really want to test your WiFi 6E router… hold on to it, WiFi 7 is just around the corner. Jokes aside, future-proofing is subjective so you have to decide among these features and trade-offs yourself.
Conclusion
Seriously, I didn’t understand much reading this. Explain to me like I am five.
Give me a chance. The A17 Pro has been winning in a lot of categories compared to the A16 Bionic. If you still made it up to here after reading this 3000-word story and seem to be confused — here’s a fun diagram I drew that could help:
I hope that helped. I constantly work to make tech seem less confusing to those around me and this story, in a way, helped me understand so many things about these two powerful SOCs myself.
Thanks, Jon for joining me and helping me explain the tech I love even better than I imagined. Your interventions were pretty useful and I am sure our readers feel the same. Jon is an amazing author and you all should check out his Medium page as well as follow him on X/Twitter.
And, if you still have any doubts about the iPhone to purchase or the SOC engine confusing you, be sure to drop a comment below and I will make sure to get back.
If you like such kind of tech stories, consider signing up for my email newsletter. It’s 100% FREE and will remain for all my lovely audience.
