Apple introduced even greater separation between the Pro and non-Pro versions last year when it released the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus with the A16 Bionic chip and the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max with the A17 Pro. This wasn't well welcomed and looking back, it seems like a particularly bad decision given only the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max support Apple Intelligence due to the processor.

The good news is that it appears Apple will not repeat its previous actions this year. The A18 processor will power all four of the iPhone 16 versions, according to code found in Apple's backend.

At least the less expensive smartphones won't be forced to use last year's SoC. There may still be a two-tier structure, where the non-Pro iPhone 16s get the A18 while the Pros get an A18 Pro or something similar.

The vanilla models may receive fewer GPU cores, either disabled or binned if Apple chooses the tiered approach. What's fascinating is that five models were found in Apple's code; the fifth model's identity is still unknown, however, rumors suggest it might be the next iPhone SE, which could come in early 2025 and share the same processor as the iPhone 16 family.