The iPhone 16 Pro model should feature Apple's upcoming A18 Pro system-on-chip, which will be available later this fall. However, the leaked Geekbench scores that are supposed to show the A18's performance may not provide the expected performance boost.

This information came from two separate posts on Weibo, one of which has since been deleted. In that post, the A18 Pro's single-core results were reported as 3,570 and its multi-core results as 9,310. If these numbers are correct, the A18 Pro would far surpass the numbers we recorded when we reviewed the iPhone 15 Pro and the A17 Pro chipset. The model had a single-core result of 2,890 and a multi-core result of 7,914.

However, other test results posted on Weibo were less encouraging. Single-core and multi-core results were 2,822 and 8,571, respectively. This is not only slightly above the A17 Pro's results, but also well behind the leaked Geekbench results purportedly showing the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. (The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is expected to appear in next year's Galaxy S25, Galaxy S25 Ultra, and other Android devices.

One leaked report also indicates that the A18 Pro should have improved graphics performance. This is good news since Apple's recent chips have lagged behind Snapdragon silicon in our graphics tests. Reportedly, in GFXBench's Aztec Ruins High Tier Offscreen benchmark (1440p), the A18 Pro achieved 83 frames per second. This is a 37% improvement over what the A17 Pro recorded in the same test.

While the unreleased silicon benchmark tests are an interesting glimpse into potential performance gains, one should not assume that they are the final word on how the phones will perform in the real world. The leaked tests may have been run on chips that have not yet been optimized for final release, and much could change between now and next fall.

In the meantime, expect many rumors to surface about the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max as Apple's fall release approaches.