The iPhone 16 has only just arrived, but we’re already hearing quite a few reports about the upcoming iPhone 17 — including what kind of chip it could feature. The question of the chip’s size has been an open question, and we may be getting some answers.
Early rumors suggested that we could see the debut of a 2nm chipset next year, though more recent reports suggest we’ll have to wait until the iPhone 18 for that to happen. But this doesn’t mean the 2025 iPhone won’t get a performance upgrade. According to analyst Jeff Pu, the A19 and A19 Pro chips will be made using a brand new version of TSMC’s 3nm process.
Pu claims (via MacRumors) that the iPhone 17’s chips will be built using the third-generation 3nm process called N3P. Meanwhile, the A18 and A17 Pro chips were built using the N3E and N3B processes, respectively. While those older chips do get the benefits of the smaller chip design compared to older 4nm chips, it sounds like the A19 chips will be one step ahead.
The N3P process will apparently involve a "Shrink" compared to A18’s N3E process, which means increased transistor density. If past iterations of TSMC’s 3nm chips are anything to go by, this should offer an additional boost to performance and energy efficiency. How much of a boost isn’t entirely clear, though it certainly won’t be as much as if Apple were using 2nm chips in the iPhone 17.
The smaller the chip, the greater the density, and those big landmark changes should offer the biggest boosts in this area. Though it’s impossible to say just how big a leap it will be at this early stage. It seems TSMC isn’t stopping at 2nm, with reports from early this year claiming that it could start production on 1.4nm chips as soon as 2027.
That was back when everyone thought 2nm chips would debut next year. Since that probably isn’t happening, those timelines could easily change. In the meantime, we should focus our attention on the iPhone 17, and you can keep up to date with all the latest news and rumors in our iPhone 17 hub.
