How the iPhone 14 will still deliver a speed boost without an A16 chip

The iPhone 14 is just about a month away from release and there isn’t much we don’t know. Credible reports say there will be a bigger Max size and a better camera, but most of the major improvements will be reserved for the iPhone 14 Pro, including the A16 chip, which will be exclusive to Apple’s priciest handsets for the first time.

But that doesn’t mean the iPhone 14 won’t be faster than the iPhone 13. Even with the same A15 chip inside, Apple probably isn’t going to advertise that this year’s processor is the same as last year’s, so you can expect the usual charts and graphs that show the iPhone 14 besting the iPhone 13 in head-to-head-tests.

It starts with the chip itself. With the iPhone 13, Apple used version of the A15 in the Pro models that had five GPU cores, while the non-pro models had 4 GPU cores. It also had 6GB of RAM, while the non-pro model had 4GB. In our testing, that gave the iPhone 13 Pro about 20 percent more graphics performance than the iPhone 13.

Since the iPhone 14 is expected to use the same version of the A15 as the “Pro” models of the iPhone 13, it would get that extra GPU core and 2GB of RAM. That will help apps load quicker as the iPhone will be able to store more in its memory without slowing down other processes. So the iPhone 14 should perform better than iPhone 13, but not necessarily better than iPhone 13 Pro.

Additionally, all iPhone 14 models are expected to use Qualcomm’s X65 5G modem, which brings “significantly better performance through new power-saving technologies” as compared to the X60. And according to leaker ShrimpApplePro on Twitter, the iPhone 14 will have a “new internals design” which will also deliver “overall performance boost over the iPhone 13 series,” though that is quite vague.

All said the iPhone 14 could still bring respectable performance gains over the non-Pro iPhone 13 that make it a compelling upgrade, though not nearly as impressive as the A16 chip in iPhone 14 Pro. Apple is expected to unveil its latest iPhone at an event in early September.