The iPhone 17 could be one of the first phones to run on a 2nm process next year. That’s according to Chou News Agency, who says that TSMC can make the 2nm chipsets, but will need help from other suppliers to package them ready for installation in devices.
TSMC first demonstrated 2nm chipsets to Apple back in December of 2023, so TSMC has been working on this for quite some time. Trial production was set to have begun in July, which was ahead of schedule. Various other reports coming out of Taiwan suggest that Apple might have reserved all of TSMC’s 2nm capacity. Apple did the same thing for its 3nm chips that were first used in the iPhone 15 Pro.
Unfortunately, the new 2nm chips will likely be limited to the iPhone 17 Pro models, and likely be called the A19 Pro. This makes sense, especially if Apple can’t get as many chips as they’d like. As the “Pro” models are typically higher-end and cost more money.
What’s so great about 2nm?
A 2nm chipset can have a lot of advantages, especially in smaller devices like phones. This means that the physical size of the chipset is going to be smaller than a 3nm chip like the A18 Pro. It also means better performance and efficiency in such a small space, which can help Apple put in a larger battery.
With the move from 4nm down to 3nm, we saw some pretty incredible performance and efficiency gains, we’d expect to see something similar with the move to 2nm. TSMC is also expected to be producing chips for Google’s Pixel smartphones next year, though that is unlikely to be on a 2nm process, especially if Apple did reserve all of TSMC’s capacity for 2nm already.
Exciting times smartphone chipsets, especially with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 being announced next month.