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Apple's new A16 Bionic chip in the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max costs around $110 to manufacture, making it more than 2.4 times more expensive than the A15 chip in the iPhone 13 Pro models.
The higher cost of the A16 is likely due in part to the fact that the chip is manufactured using TSMC's 4nm process while the A15 is a 5nm chip, according to Nikkei Asia reported. iPhone chips could continue to rise in price as miniaturization continues, with rumors suggesting the A17 chip in the iPhone 15 Pro models will be based on TSMC's 3nm process and a report from DigiTimes this week claiming TSMC will begin mass production of 2nm chips in 2025.
iPhone 14 series: Production costs increased by 20%
Geekbench 5 benchmark results show that the A16 chip delivers 15% to 17% faster multi-core performance compared to the A15 chip. Only the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max are equipped with the A16 chip, while the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus have the same A15 chip with a five-core GPU as in the iPhone 13 Pro models. In collaboration with Fomalhaut Techno Solutions, a Japanese research company specializing in reverse engineering and bill of materials analysis, Nikkei found that the average production costs for the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max have increased by about 20% compared to the corresponding previous models. (Image: Apple)
