The Nikkei Shimbun tracked and analyzed the manufacturing process of Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max. Finally found that the total cost of all components of the machine is about 558 U.S. dollars (currently about RMB 4079), an increase of 12% over the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

Sub-components, the cost of the telephoto lens is equivalent to 3.8 times last year’s cost of $ 30; the titanium body costs $ 50, 43% more expensive than the previous stainless steel material; the A17 Pro chip cost of $130, compared with the A16 up 27%.

The 3nm process used in the A17 Pro is a significant price hike compared to the 4nm foundry-based A16 Bionic, but that’s not the most surprising part, as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, due out in 2022, is even a bit more expensive.

Nikkei Shimbun says that the A16 Bionic costs around $110 to manufacture and the A17 Pro around $130, a difference of just $20, and they believe that the tech giant may be levelling out costs by increasing the size of its shipments.

By comparison, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is around $160, which is clearly higher than the A17 Pro, though that $160 may also include the cost of things like the baseband.

What’s even more interesting is that the A17 Pro is only used in Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, while the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is currently used in millions of Android smartphones, but it still costs more than the A17 Pro.

Of course, most Android handset makers will also only be able to source Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which may not be an unacceptable outcome for some, but when you also consider that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is rumoured to be priced higher than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, it’s only going to become more difficult to adjust profit margins for Qualcomm’s slew of partners.

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The whistleblower URedditor said that the A16 Bionic chip is labeled as a 5nm chip inside Apple. This may explain why the M2 Pro and M2 Max, found in the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, are mentioned in Apple’s press release as being mass-produced on a 5nm process, rather than 4nm. craft.

The A17 Bionic chip will definitely use TSMC’s most advanced 3nm process. Due to the transition from 5nm to 3nm, the performance leap between the A16 Bionic chip and the A17 Bionic chip will be huge. It is noticed that in previous benchmark tests, the A17 Bionic chip improved by up to 31% in single-core and multi-core results compared to the previous generation.

The latest leaks make the upcoming iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max look more attractive, as both phones will be equipped with the A17 Bionic chip, while the lower-priced iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus may use the A16 Bionic chip. chip.

In a discussion initiated by URedditor, it was stated that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is also manufactured on the same “5nm” process, but in some cases, the chip shows better power efficiency than the A16 Bionic chip. It has also been claimed that TSMC’s 3nm process may just be a shrink of the 5nm node and that N3E technology is the true 3nm process.

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Apple’s A-series SoCs continue to lead the smartphone market in terms of performance, but the performance upgrades between each generation have become smaller and smaller. This is certainly due to technical constraints on the one hand, and another important reason is the exodus of many executives and engineers from Apple’s chip department.

The A16 Bionic chip was designed with ray tracing capabilities early on, but was too power hungry to be used in the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. That’s probably why there’s evidence that Apple’s latest top iPhone SoC uses a GPU architecture similar to the A15 Bionic.

And the talent drain outside of technology has become a big problem, with more and more chip engineers jumping ship, such as designer Gerard Williams III. He left in 2019 to found Nuvia, which was acquired by Qualcomm, which then launched Oryon.

In an effort to prevent more engineers from leaving the company, Apple has made internal presentations to try to convince its employees that a career at Apple is more rewarding and stable and that jumping ship to other startups carries significant risks to growth. Given that many industry experts and economic observers are predicting a severe economic downturn, many of these engineers may prefer to work at Apple.

The gap in performance between Apple’s A-series chips and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips is already narrowing, and The Information says Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 has closed the gap, and if next year’s A17 Bionic continues to disappoint in performance, Qualcomm and MediaTek’s successor model, due out in late 2023, could outperform Apple.

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(via WCCFTech)

In fact, from the A14 (iPhone 12 series) in 2020 to the A15 (iPhone 13 series) in 2021, consumers have already noticed the limited improvement in Apple’s mobile CPU segment.

For the iPhone 14 / 14 Plus in 2022, the Cupertino tech giant is going straight to last year’s A15 Bionic chip with a few other specs/experience improvements to appeal to potential consumers.

Also on the iPhone 14 Pro / Pro Max models, after going through the specs, we found that the GPU and neural engine core count of the A16 Bionic remain the same as last year’s A15 Bionic.

Despite reports that TSMC’s 3nm advanced process is not progressing well, the switch to 4nm A16 Bionic (no official mention of the chip foundry) could still bring some dividends to the iPhone 14 Pro product line.

Having a similar CPU/GPU core count may not be much of a disadvantage, but it does mean that the iPhone 14 Pro lineup needs to stand out more in other areas, otherwise people are going to have to take a shot at the A16 Bionic.

As the table above shows, the A16 Bionic and A15 Bionic chips not only have the same number of CPU / GPU cores but also have a 16-core neural engine.

For reference, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, which was switched from Samsung to TSMC, is ahead of the A15 Bionic-equipped iPhone 13 Pro Max in gaming tests and has better heat control.

In addition, Apple may be able to keep them at a higher power efficiency level through proper tuning and optimization, which will lead to improved device life. As for the truth, please wait patiently for the hands-on test after the official opening of the sale.

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