A17 Bionic: what to expect from Apple’s next flagship chipset

The two most powerful smartphone chipsets of 2023 are still to come, with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (expected to power the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S24 line) – likely in October or November – and the A17 Bionic (set to power the iPhone 15 Pro models) likely to land even sooner.

Not only will the A17 Bionic probably land before the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, but going by past form it will probably be even more powerful, taking the crown as the very best smartphone chipset of the year.

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Of course, we don’t know that for sure yet, but we’ve heard a number of leaks and rumors about the A17 Bionic, and they paint a picture of a very capable chipset indeed. Below, you’ll find everything we’ve heard so far about the A17 Bionic, along with when it’s likely to land, and which phones it will probably be included in.

A17 Bionic: Release Date

The A17 Bionic will almost certainly make its debut alongside the first iPhones it’s included in – specifically some models in the iPhone 15 line.

These phones and this chipset will probably be unveiled in September. More specifically, Apple usually unveils new iPhones on the Tuesday or Wednesday of the first or second week in September, which this year means September 5, 6, 12, or 13. But Tuesdays are most common, meaning September 5 and 12 are the most likely options.

In terms of when you’ll actually be able to use a phone with the A17 Bionic in it, that will probably be nine or ten days later, with Apple typically shipping its new iPhones on the Friday of the week after the announcement. So if one of the dates above is correct, that would mean either Friday, September 15 or Friday, September 22.

One source has predicted the iPhone 15 – and therefore probably the A17 Bionic – might be delayed until October, but we’d still say September is most likely for now, as no other leaks have yet agreed with this claim.

A17 Bionic: Leaks

While there haven’t been a huge number of A17 Bionic leaks, we have been hearing about it for a while, with the earliest news dating back to 2022.

This included an announcement from TSMC (the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which manufactures Apple’s A-series chipsets) that its next generation of chipsets will be made using a 3nm (nanometer) manufacturing process.

That’s down from 5nm on the current generation, and could lead to significant improvements. At 3nm, TSMC and Apple will be able to fit far more transistors in the same space, with reports suggesting the A17 Bionic could have anywhere from 18 billion to 24 billion transistors, up from around 16 billion in the A16 Bionic.

How does that help? Well, TSMC claims that these chipsets will be 35% more energy efficient than the current generation of chipsets, which could allow for major battery life gains.

That said, while TSMC manufactures Apple’s chipsets, Apple itself designs them, so it might choose to use the 3nm process to boost power rather than efficiency.

Indeed, big power improvements look likely – though it’s not clear whether these will come as well as or instead of a 35% efficiency improvement.

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One source has claimed that the A17 Bionic will include a CPU that’s 20% more powerful than in the A16 Bionic. That would be a huge jump, as the A16 Bionic’s CPU is only around 10% faster than the A15 Bionic’s.

The same source has claimed that when benchmarked using Geekbench 6, the A17 Bionic achieves a single-core score of 3,019 and a multi-core result of 7,860. In another benchmark test, spotted by MyDrivers, the A17 Bionic performs even better, with a single-core score of 3,986 and a multi-core result of 8,841.