Apple is currently gearing up to release the iPhone 14, most likely at an event in either September or October, alongside a refreshed Apple Watch Series 8.
We recently got a good look at iOS 16, which has made up very excited for the iPhone 14, and with increasing competition from Samsung and other manufacturers Apple needs to keep on their toes.
But Apple knows this and secretly began working on making the iPhone 14 unbeatable many, many years ago – thanks to Apple Silicon.
While Samsung, Google, and others can offer attractive handsets, especially if you're a die-hard Android fan, Apple has an ace in the hole: extremely good performance with limited battery drain.
Starting way back with the A4 chip inside the iPhone 4, the first system-on-a-chip (SoC) to be designed by Apple themselves, the company has gradually improved and improved its designs, leading to higher performance using less power.
The difference is now so stark that the iPhone 13 Pro Max easily overpowers the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra in benchmark tests and everyday usage, despite being released several months before Samsung's premium smartphone.
And there's no reason to believe that Apple is slowing down.
M-assive
While Apple develops the A-series chips for its iPhone – meaning the iPhone 14 will most likely get an A16 chipset – the real innovation, at least publicly, has been happening over at Apple's M-series chips, available in its computers and iPads.
The M-series lineup, comprising the M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 Ultra, offer performance that Intel and other chipmakers can only dream of, while using almost no power.
Because Apple integrates its teams and technology so tightly, these innovations are likely to 'trickle' down to the A-series chips.
The only area that Apple needs to improve its M-series chips are GPU performance – where Nvidia has been doing some heroic work – and that's mostly in relation to gaming.
To infinity...
The iPhone 14's A16 chip, then, seems pretty likely to offer some big performance upgrades over the outgoing A15 chip, which is no slouch.
The chip supply shortage has likely hampered Apple's plans somewhat, meaning TSMC, which makes Apple's chips, couldn't switch to a lower nanometre process, but there are still efficiencies to be gained.
We'll have to wait and see to be sure, but the iPhone 14 promises to supercharge everything great about the iPhone 13 – and then some.
