While the iPhone 16e does feature the A18 chip from the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, it is missing one GPU core.
A18 Used in iPhone 16e has a 4-Core GPU instead of 5-Core Used in the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus
While many will end up believing that they are getting the exact same chip from the iPhone 16, and they are, but A18 used in the iPhone 16e is slightly different, giving the flagship lineup an edge when it comes to graphics performance.
However, do keep in mind that one less core does not translate to a noticeable drop in performance in the real world. Sure, it might show up in a benchmark app like Geekbench, but there’s nothing anyone should worry about.
Also, these chips aren’t specially made for the iPhone 16e; manufacturing chips like the A18 is a tough process, and not every single chip ends up in a smartphone or tablet. In this case, Apple is likely using a binned version of the A18 with a disabled GPU core.
That core likely did not meet quality standards and was disabled before it was shipped out.
Apple has been doing this on devices for many years, and it’s a fairly common practice in the industry as well.
Everything else in the A18 chip is exactly the same as the iPhone 16. This means you get the same 6‑core CPU with 2 performance and 4 efficiency cores, and a 16-core Neural Engine.
This translates to epic performance across the board and comes in handy in features like Apple Intelligence.
The one thing that really pleases me here is pretty simple: the iPhone 16e uses the A18 chip and not the A17 Pro. Though both would have served their purpose, it would have been the funniest thing ever if Apple shipped an older chip in a sort-of-premium smartphone.
