The A18 powering the iPhone 16e is not the same as the chipset found in the more expensive iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, as Apple employed a well-known approach in the industry called chip-binning. This is why the SoC sports a 4-core GPU instead of the 5-core configuration present in the other version. As you would have guessed, this difference impacts graphics performance, with the latest benchmark revealing that Apple’s $599 handset obtains a 15 percent lower score.
A new benchmark leak also reveals that Apple did not compromise on the RAM count, with the iPhone 16e featuring 8GB of memory
Whether Apple resorted to chip-binning on the iPhone 16e to reduce the device’s manufacturing cost or to materialize some differentiation between the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, we do not know. What we do know is that the less capable A18 featured in the latest model performs slower than the regular version, with evidence displayed in Geekbench 6 Metal’s benchmark.
While everyone wanting to get their hands on the iPhone 16e will be pleased to learn that Apple did not reduce the number of CPU cores on the A18, and also equipped the handset with 8GB RAM to make it eligible to run on-device generative AI features, the compromise made was in the number of GPU cores. With the 4-core configuration, the iPhone 16e obtains a score of 24,188 in Geekbench 6 Metal.
As for how this A18 variant fares against the one fueling the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, the score comparison shows that one less GPU core can negatively impact the score by around 15 percent, at least in this test. We have yet to see how the device performs in a series of other synthetic and real-world benchmarks, not to mention gaming performance, so Geekbench 6 Metal might not show the complete picture.
The benchmark does, however, reveal that you are paying your money’s worth and if you want to experience possibly better graphics performance, you have to spend a premium and acquire the more capable models like the iPhone 16 or iPhone 16 Plus.
News Source: Geekbench 6
About the author: Omar Sohail is a reporter and analyst for Wccftech's mobile section, specializing in the technology and business of the mobile industry. His expertise lies in the intricate hardware supply chain, covering developments in semiconductor manufacturing, chip lithography, and camera sensor technology.
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