The iPhone 16, and more specifically the A18 chip it is expected to feature, may have the best Neural Engine NPU Apple has ever produced, making the new iPhone the company's best device for Apple Intelligence and other AI applications The new iPhone will be the company's best device for Apple Intelligence and other AI applications.

Tipster MappleGold (via Wccftech) posted on X that "the Neural Engine in the A18 is too powerful," claiming it is superior to the M4 chip in the iPad Pro 2024. According to the company's own measurements, the M4 has the fastest NPU of any current Apple device, and while it is currently only available for purchase in the iPad Pro, the chip is rumored to be coming soon to the Mac and MacBook.

MappleGold will not tell us the exact performance of the A18 chip, nor do they have a track record of accurate leaked information to further support their claims. But the idea that it will outperform Mac-class chips is very significant. While questions remain as to which new models this upgraded NPU will apply to, it should mean that the recently announced Apple Intelligence feature will work at its best in the new iPhones.

Apple executives claim that the power of the Neural Engine is a key factor in the device's ability to run Apple Intelligence. The only iPhones currently capable of using this (if released) are the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. So we are eagerly awaiting the standard iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus to be upgraded

Hopefully, since MappleGold refers to the A18 rather than the A18 Pro, all iPhone 16 will have this super-power NPU This would fit nicely with the rumored RAM capacity upgrades for the standard and Plus models, since 8GB is apparently the minimum RAM capacity needed to run Apple Intelligence.

Hopefully, come September, everyone who purchases the latest iPhone will have access to Apple Intelligence, whether it is the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro, or iPhone 16 Pro Max. For more information on these devices' supposed upgrades and features, please visit our Rumor Hub or check out our guide to iOS 18 and Apple Intelligence.