Apple debuted the A20 Pro chip on the iPhone 18 Pro lineup and the new iPhone Duo.
A20 Pro is built on TSMC's 2nm process
Photo Credit: Apple
Apple debuted three new iPhones powered by its latest A20 Pro chip on Thursday. The iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max, and the iPhone Duo, the company's long-awaited first foldable, all run on the company's in-house 2nm chip, which brings significant improvements to graphics rendering, on-device AI processing, memory bandwidth, and more. Apple says the A20 Pro “sets a new bar for mobile computing” and features upgrades across the entire chip.
Right off the bat, the new chip presents considerable gains over its predecessor—last year's A19 Pro, which powered the iPhone 17 Pro lineup and the iPhone Air. A20 Pro features 50 percent more memory bandwidth than A19 Pro; its GPU capability is up to 40 percent faster than A19 Pro; and the chip's AI processing power is double that of A19 Pro. Here's how the A20 Pro chip stacks up against its predecessor.
The new chip is built on TSMC's 2-nanometre process, compared with the A19 Pro's 3nm architecture, bringing improvements in performance, power efficiency, and transistor density.
While both chips feature 6-core CPUs, Apple says A20 Pro comes with 50 percent more memory bandwidth than A19 Pro. The new chipset's 6-core CPU also features integrated Neural Accelerators.
A20 Pro's 7-core GPU design is a significant improvement over the 6-core GPU of A19 Pro, with Apple claiming the new chip to be 40 percent faster than its predecessor when rendering graphics.
This means high-end triple-A games will run better on the iPhone 18 Pro series and the new iPhone Duo. Expect better visuals and frame rates in demanding titles.
The iPhone 18 Pro runs on the A20 Pro chipset
Photo Credit: Apple
The A20 Pro comes with a new Dual 16-core Neural Engine, another significant upgrade over the A19 Pro's 16-core Neural Engine, doubling the chip's on-device AI processing power over its predecessor.
That means more computation power for the new AI-powered Siri and all on-device AI workloads. The new iPhones come with the all-new Siri AI, a more personal and conversational AI assistant capable of interacting with apps and drawing from personal user context.
Apple's A20 Pro mobile chip comes in a new packaging inspired by the company's M-series Apple silicon. Here, the silicon die is placed adjacent to the memory, allowing the A20 Pro to attach directly to the next-generation vapour chamber, which is claimed to dissipate more heat and enable a “massive leap” in sustained performance.
This new packaging allows A20 Pro powered iPhones to stay cooler for longer under sustained loads. Apple promises up to a 40 percent gain in sustained performance over the previous generation. This means iPhone 18 Pro models and iPhone Duo are less likely to throttle when playing demanding games for long or multitasking.
Due to the A20 Pro's 2nm design, the chip is more power-efficient than the A19 Pro. As a result, the iPhone 18 Pro delivers up to 36 hours of video playback, while the iPhone 18 Pro Max claims up to 45 hours of video playback.
iPhone 18 Pro also charges faster, with Apple claiming that the phone can reach 50 percent battery charge in around 15 minutes. iPhone 18 Pro Max, on the other hand, claims seven hours of video playback on five minutes of wired charging.
A20 Pro also comes with a new C2 secondary chip—Apple's next-generation cellular modem system. The company claims that the C2 modem brings AI-powered improvements to cellular quality and reliability and consumes 15 percent less energy than the C1X modem used in iPhone Air and iPhone 17e. The A19 Pro chip in iPhone 17 Pro models was paired with a third-party Qualcomm modem.
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