Apple's A17 Pro Is a 3nm Chip Powering iPhone 15 Pro, Pro Max
A17 Pro introduces hardware ray tracing in a new GPU, with console-quality games announced for the phone.
Apple's iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are getting the first widely available 3-nanometer chip, the A17 Pro.
The A17 Pro boasts 19 billion transistors and a 6-core CPU, with two high-performance cores (which Apple calls the "fastest mobile CPU"), up to 10% faster than predecessors, and four high-efficiency cores. The 16-core neural engine can process up to 35 trillion operations per second, and Apple is boasting about more speed here, too. There are also dedicated engines for ProRes, an AV1 decoder, and the Pro display engine.
View Original
View Original
View Original
View Original
There's a new GPU with a custom shader architecture, which Apple says is the biggest shift to the company's GPUs, ever. It has six cores and is up to 20% faster than its predecessor. The GPU allows for mesh shading, hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and more. The ray tracing is four times faster than the software-based option on the A16 Bionic. The GPU and neural engine can also work together for upscaling.
Apple is pushing the GPU as a big boon for mobile gaming, highlighting developers that showed off improved graphics using the chip. Resident Evil Village and the Resident Evil 4 remake, games that were available on console and PC, are going to come to the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max due to the power of the chip. Apple also showed off The Division: Resurgence and Gensin Impact. Ubisoft will bring Assassin's Creed Mirage to the iPhone in 2024 - it had previously been announced for consoles and PC.
There's also a USB 3 controller on the A17 Pro, enabling up to 10 Gbps. This suggests that it will be faster than the USB Type-C port, replacing the Lightning jack, on the non-pro models. Apple is suggesting that users can use USB 3 over the USB C port to move pro-grade video to a Mac quickly or to record directly to external storage. It will also support 4K60 ProRes.
The A17 Pro also features a second-generation ultra-wideband chip for better precision in Find My or to share locations with other people.
The 6.1-inch iPhone 15 Pro and 6.7-inch Pro Max will each use grade 5 titanium, replacing stainless steel, which Apple says will make these phones lighter than their predecessors. The phone features the thinnest borders ever on iPhone, reducing dimensions while maintaining the screen size. On Pro models, Apple is replacing the mute switch with a customizable action button, which will allow you to launch apps, activate the camera, utilize shortcuts, or keep muting the phone if that's your preference.
| Header Cell - Column 0 | Apple A17 Pro | Apple A16 Bionic |
|---|---|---|
| Process Node | 3nm | 4nm |
| Transistors | 19 billion | 16 billion |
| CPU Cores | 6 (2 high-performance, 4 high-efficiency) | 6 (2 high-performance, 4 high-efficiency) |
| GPU Cores | 6 | 5 |
| Neural Cores | 16 | 16 |
| Neural engine operations per second | 35 trillion | 17 trillion |
The iPhone Pro introduces a brand new 48MP main camera with a f/1.78 aperture. It can now shoot in 48MP HEIF at 24 mm, 28 mm, and 35 mm focal lengths. There’s also a new 12MP 3x telephoto lens on iPhone 15 Pro, while the large size of the iPhone Pro Max allows for a 5x zoom (120 mm focal length, f/2.8 aperture). The sensor used in the telephoto lens is twice as large as the one found in the iPhone 14 Pro. The iPhone 15 Pro Max also features all-new three-axis optical image stabilization with 10,000 micro adjustments per second (the iPhone 15 Pro has two-axis image stabilization). There is also a new 12MP ultra-wide camera (13 mm focal length, f/2.2 aperture) with improved night mode.
Another feature announced is that the ultrawide and and main cameras can be used together to shoot 3D video to use on Apple Vision Pro. However, this feature won’t launch with the iPhone 15 Pro and will instead be available later this year in an iOS 17 update. The IPhone 15 Pro will start at $999 for a 128GB model, the same price as last year. The iPhone 15 Pro Max will begin at $1,199 with 256GB model, the same price as last year for that capacity, but eschewing the cheaper 128GB option. Pre-orders begin on Friday, and the phones will be available on Sept. 22.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
iPhone 15 and 15 Plus Get A16 Bionic
The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus mirrors the design of the iPhone 14 that came before it. It's available with either a 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch display and comes in pink, yellow, green, blue or black. Those displays now feature the Dynamic Island, which was first introduced on the iPhone 14 Pro. The iPhone 15 features an all-new camera system, adding a new 48MP main camera with a 26mm focal length, and f/1.6 aperture. For this, Apple is sticking with the A16 Bionic from the iPhone 14 Pro, including two high-performance cores, 4 efficiency cores, and a 5-core GPU. A new second-generation ultra-wideband chip allows the iPhone 15 to connect to other devices using the same chip from further distances.
View Original
View Original
The new iPhones are the first to use USB Type-C for data and charging (though MagSafe and Qi 2 are still options). USB-C will also come to AirPods Pro Gen 2, and you'll be able to charge AirPods or Apple Watch over USB from your iPhone. Apple will also make a USB-C version of EarPods. The iPhone 15 will start at $799, while the iPhone 15 Plus will begin at $899.
Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 Get S9 SiP
Apple also introduced its S9 SiP (system-in-package), with 5.6 billion transistors, and a 30% faster GPU over the S8, to power the new Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2. It also features a four-core neural engine. The chip allows more Siri requests to be handled directly on the Watch. Despite the new chip, Apple is still promising 18 hours of battery life on the Series 9, which has been the same for years. The neural cores are being used to power a new "double tap" gesture that lets you tap your thumb and second finger together to press an app's main button if your other hand is occupied. The S9 also features a second-gen ultra-wideband chip for precision finding, also enabled in the iPhone 15.
View Original
View Original
The Apple Watch Series 9 starts at $399, while the Ultra 2 begins at $799. They are available for pre-order today and will be available on Sept. 22.
Andrew E. Freedman is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on laptops, desktops and gaming. He also keeps up with the latest news. A lover of all things gaming and tech, his previous work has shown up in Tom's Guide, Laptop Mag, Kotaku, PCMag and Complex, among others. Follow him on Threads @FreedmanAE and BlueSky @andrewfreedman.net. You can send him tips on Signal: andrewfreedman.01
-
Dave Haynie "iPhone Pro Max allows for a 5x zoom (120 mm focal length"Reply
As with nearly every other phone, there is NO ZOOM on this phone. The telephoto camera is, as you also say here, a fixed focal length camera. So are the other two. All of the "zooming" is the result of either jumping between cameras and/or digital processing.
The telephoto camera is actually the most interesting thing, because it's based on a tetra prism used to effectively lengthen the focal length without the need to turn the sensor on its side, as "periscope" teles do in phones, thus limiting the size of the sensor to some fraction of the thickness of the phone. That's actual innovation, for a change! -
CelicaGT Reply
Apples marketing is always cringe, and it seems zoom=telephoto for the layperson these days (Don't get me started on 5X, focal distance and aperture numbers they state....).Dave Haynie said:"iPhone Pro Max allows for a 5x zoom (120 mm focal length"
As with nearly every other phone, there is NO ZOOM on this phone. The telephoto camera is, as you also say here, a fixed focal length camera. So are the other two. All of the "zooming" is the result of either jumping between cameras and/or digital processing.
The telephoto camera is actually the most interesting thing, because it's based on a tetra prism used to effectively lengthen the focal length without the need to turn the sensor on its side, as "periscope" teles do in phones, thus limiting the size of the sensor to some fraction of the thickness of the phone. That's actual innovation, for a change!
On a side note I recently picked up an iPhone 14 Pro Max (tm all rights reserves etc etc) and the camera system is...OK, I'd put it on par with a quality point and shoot. Then again I have actual kit that I use for the purpose of taking "real" pictures. Now, that said the old adage of "the camera you have" is in play here. I always have my phone and rarely my DSLR, and composition counts for a lot. I have many pictures from my phone that I would commit to print and hang on the wall. Could I have done better with the big camera? For sure, but it was at home. -
garrett040 Introducing USB-C to the iphone 15 and limiting its bandwidth unless you buy the "pro" is the most apple thing they could have done. Did they even list the speed of the regular iPhone 15's usb-c port? Also they never listed any battery times in hours just "all day"Reply
bogus garbage -
rluker5 How is apple doing with the game availability these days? Can you play from your libraries from various launchers? Or emulators? Or sit the phone in one of those Bluetooth gamepad phone holders and play like that?Reply
I was thinking they were barking up the wrong tree with gaming, but a decent handheld is expensive.
But I haven't been following Apple closely for a while and maybe if they are pushing the GPU so much they might have opened up games and peripherals? -
TJ Hooker Reply
The non-Pro models only get USB 2 speeds, 480 Mbps.garrett040 said:Did they even list the speed of the regular iPhone 15's usb-c port? -
Alvar "Miles" Udell ReplyThe A17 Pro boasts 19 billion transistors and a 6-core CPU, with two high-performance cores (which Apple calls the "faster mobile CPU"), up to 10% faster than predecessors, and four high-efficiency cores.
Tech sites: First to point out this (quite possibly) extremely lackluster performance jump despite a price jump.
Mac sites: LOOK AT THE CAMERA! We can't do what Samsung and Google can, BUT LOOK AT THE CAMERA! BEST ON AN iPHONE EVER!!!!! -
Kamen Rider Blade Reply
Sony's Xperia 1 V is one of the few that has "True Optical Zoom", it's limited, but it's something.CelicaGT said:Apples marketing is always cringe, and it seems zoom=telephoto for the layperson these days (Don't get me started on 5X, focal distance and aperture numbers they state....).
That's not the end of the Xperia 1 V's tricks. For instance, the zoom camera has a variable lens that lets you take between 3.5x and 5.2x zoom at full optical resolution. It's an ingenious piece of tech that major smartphone makers have not adopted.
-
JamesJones44 Don't get me wrong, I like Apple and if you can make it work why not. However, I could care less about RayTracing on a 6 inch display as a selling feature. Even on a 10 inch display on an iPad will give many difficultly picking out that level of detail, but distance and size may make it worth it, but on a 6.1/6.8 inch display it seems silly to me.Reply
Maybe I'm alone in this, but I would rather get an extra hour of battery life while gaming than have RayTracing. -
DougMcC Reply
I'm afraid emulation is still a no-no on ios so very small library of games for iphone.rluker5 said:How is apple doing with the game availability these days? Can you play from your libraries from various launchers? Or emulators? Or sit the phone in one of those Bluetooth gamepad phone holders and play like that?
I was thinking they were barking up the wrong tree with gaming, but a decent handheld is expensive.
But I haven't been following Apple closely for a while and maybe if they are pushing the GPU so much they might have opened up games and peripherals? -
nitrium Reply
So you do care, which begs the question how much less? Or did you really mean "I couldn't care less"?JamesJones44 said:However, I could care less about RayTracing on a 6 inch display as a selling feature.