Apple's new iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max smartphones include the company's latest A18 Pro SoC, with a die shot comparison between the A18 Pro, and the A18 non-Pro (inside of the iPhone 16).
The folks at High Yield detail that Apple's new A18 Pro SoC has a 105mm² die size, while the A18 SoC measures in at 90mm². The larger die allows Apple to add larger SLC cache and an additional GPU core, which you can see in the comparison image between the A18 Pro and A18 SoC dies above.
In a thread on X, it's mentioned that the die shots are proof that Apple didn't design the A18 to based on the A18 Pro, but rather they're two different SoCs. The previous-gen A17 Pro (inside of the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max) is bigger than the A18, but smaller than the A18 Pro at 103.8mm².
Apple hasn't been clear on how many transistors are inside of their A-series SoCs, but we know that the company is having its A18 Pro and A18 SoCs fabbed at TSMC on its N3E node, which has a lower density than the N3B variant. The bigger die size of the A18 Pro could be because of the increased transistor count over the A17 Pro, with a fresh new 3nm process node at TSMC.
- Read more: Apple's new A18 Pro for iPhone 16: fastest mobile chip in CPU, GPU
- Read more: Apple iPhone 16 Pro teardown: A18 Pro smaller logic board, densely packed
- Read more: Apple A18 Pro for iPhone 16 Pro, Pro Max: TSMC N3E, CPU, GPU, NPU faster
The new Apple A18 Pro has been called the fastest mobile chip on the planet, with some more information on that in the links below.