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Latest iPhone Chips to Remain Exclusive to Pro Models for iPhone 15 and Beyond

Let's be honest... many people will get a new phone when their carrier tells them it's time to "upgrade"

These customers will be paying a monthly bill for service to their carrier every month for the rest of their lives anyway... so why not tack-on $20 extra each month for a shiny new piece of hardware every couple years?

:p
 
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wonderings said:
Forgot about the screen, yes the newer screen is better, but the old is no slouch. I don't spend a lot or any time looking at images that need the best possible viewing screen possible. I have work machines for that. The XR screen is great, the 13 is better but again not something I would say is worth an upgrade. I would not have a 13 if I did not get it from work.
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I use Lightroom on my phone in addition to my iMBP so the better screen everywhere is nicer; especially since OLED is brighter and more viewable outside.
wonderings said:
I did not have any webpage reloads that I can remember, and I generally have a bunch of tabs always open.
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You might not on your 13, but I do on my XR. I've had apps reload, losing my place, when I temporarily switch to Safari to read something. Double the RAM will alleviate that.
wonderings said:
Face ID with a mask is not supported on the XR? If not then that is simply an Apple limitation and Apple doing what it does being anti consumer.
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Whether or not it could is irrelevant. Apple says the XR does not have a powerful enough processor/neural engine to support the more detailed scanning needed for that feature. It's a convenience feature that I will enjoy with my new 14. I believe them more than people who see nefarious machinations everywhere.
wonderings said:
Yes the new phone will be "better", I just think most of it is not noticeable.
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My XR doesn't have any of the latest computational photography tricks like Smart HDR, Night Mode, or Sweater Mode so based on the existing capabilities and expected features and camera updates, I think it will be.
 
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But I don't think the A15 on the iPhone 14 will be the same as the current A15. It may be "tweaked" for a little faster performance, especially now with 6 GB of RAM in the SoC.
 
wanha said:
This is a logical step for Apple to take to further differentiate their flagship phones from the rest.

As great as it was as an SE owner, it never made much sense for the SE models to have the same chip as that year's Pro models.
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"No sense"? That's the only thing that makes sense about the SE from the consumers perspective.

The SE is under spec'ed and outdated in essentially all other areas. The fact that you get this year's market leading SoC for around $399 is the SE's selling point.

The value proposition doesn't add up if you get an iPhone from several generations ago with last year's Soc. Then you might as well buy something refurbished to avoid the budget aesthetics and display.
 
ian87w said:
Then what's the point of the iPhone 14?
It would make more sense if Apple literally would just release iPhone 14 Pro with A16, and then an iPhone 13 Max with A15, so the lineup will be 13 mini, 13, 13 Max, 14 Pro, 14 Pro Max. That would make more sense.
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Presumably there are going to be other improvements to the 14 besides the chip.
 
kerr said:
I don’t care about number of cameras or their quality. USB-C and no notch/pill would sway me.
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Then you are not in the target market for the Pro series iPhones, or for annual upgrades. People who are tend to be avid photographers who really care about camera quality.
 
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spinedoc77 said:
What's the new chip bringing besides the ability to open apps .000927 seconds faster? Genuinely curious.
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This. Apple chips have gotten so insanely good that they can use the A15 from here on out on every new iPhone for all I care.

The new chips will just be marketing buzzwords at this point for the gullible and those who don't understand.
 
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spinedoc77 said:
What's the new chip bringing besides the ability to open apps .000927 seconds faster? Genuinely curious.
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Could be battery life.
Could just be incremental but progress is still progress.

We would all laugh at Android if they dropped in the same SoC year over year for the same product's next generation.

If they're going to just re-package what we've had for a year, there should at least be a price reduction.

The 5c flopped because it was a repackaged 5 and the 5s existed.
 
My 13 Pro was too heavy and had extra cameras and a LIDAR array that I barely used. This move makes total sense as a way of adding more stuff to the Pro devices that people are likely to notice -- and also increasing the price delta for the Pro line.
 
Putzytart said:
So - if the iPhone 14 (non-pro) does not get the new chip, the new 48MP cameras, and the new pill-dot notch replacement, all of which goes into the iPhone 14 Pro – what is the selling point of the iPhone 14 (non-pro)????? Surely just more RAM is not enough to get people to upgrade? What am I missing?
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Many will be upgrading from way older models, so even the “gimped” non-pro models will be a big improvement for those.
 
darngooddesign said:
According to Apple the iPhone Mini flopped despite having the newest chip.
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They chalk it up to people dont want mini phones. I think that is a trend people largely prefer larger phones but the larger problem in my view there was price not the product.
$100 less than the most popular model, for what is perceived as a lot less (screen real estate).

If it was SE level in price, it would sell like hot cakes.
 
kerr said:
There is no justification for Apple to even manufacture an iPhone 14 then.

I’ve never bought a Plus or Max model, it seems like I will never again but an iPhone the year it’s released. There is simply no reason to. Why would anyone buy an iPhone 14 this year? Why would anyone buy an iPhone 15 next year?
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Apple needs several steps on the "value ladder" to lead consumers to understand how big a value they get from buying the more expensive iPhone over the less expensive one.

$699 will seem expensive and a bad value proposition by comparison to $999+ if $699 only gets you a new iteration of iPhone 13.

The mid-tier iPhone 14 is simply being pushed down a few steps on the value ladder to make the 14 Pros appear to be much higher value., comparatively.
 
ian87w said:
I can understand different bins of the same chip, eg 1 less GPU core for the non Pro models. But having 1 generation old chip seems like a cheap move since Apple is only going to increase price.
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Since Apple can't make the average consumer go for a Pro by adding more to them, they now opt to omit more and more features from the mid-tier iPhones.

Too many opt for $699 iPhones so Apple is slowly weaning us all over to not second guessing $999+ iPhones. That's all it is.

Future SE and mid-tier iPhones will be so low value by comparison to the Pros that next to no one will buy them. Exactly what Apple wants.
 
ApplesAreSweet&Sour said:
"No sense"? That's the only thing that makes sense about the SE from the consumers perspective.

The SE is under spec'ed and outdated in essentially all other areas. The fact that you get this year's market leading SoC for around $399 is the SE's selling point.

The value proposition doesn't add up if you get an iPhone from several generations ago with last year's Soc. Then you might as well buy something refurbished to avoid the budget aesthetics and display.
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The SE is intended for budget conscious consumers, old timers who want to stick with Touch ID - I would suggest most of them don't care one iota about what processor is in the phone.

Now, if you're out looking for a great price on the latest processor, this will obviously be a huge disappointment, but I would wager there are at lot of these folks out there than there is in the budget crowd.

I'll grant you that when the SE comes out, the processor should not be more than one generation old.
 
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Taipan said:
Oh, so the price of the non-Pro will certainly get lowered, right?
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Doubt it. It was already increase with the iPhone 12 ($799). iPhone 14 presumably will be the same at $799, while the 14 Max will be $899. But then with the inflation and currency chaos, Apple can increase the prices in other countries instead.

In my country, the regular iPhone 13 is already at $1000 at launch. I shudder thinking how much the 14 will be.
 
Putzytart said:
So - if the iPhone 14 (non-pro) does not get the new chip, the new 48MP cameras, and the new pill-dot notch replacement, all of which goes into the iPhone 14 Pro – what is the selling point of the iPhone 14 (non-pro)????? Surely just more RAM is not enough to get people to upgrade? What am I missing?
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Well new colors of course, featuring a pic of Eddy's flip flops.
 
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