Every year, Apple shows up to drop a flagship SoC that sweeps the competition away. This year they are here with another one. This one is the Apple A17 Pro.

The Apple A17 Pro takes a break from the Apple’s usual Bionic naming tradition. It is Apple’s latest flagship SoC and it is the successor to last year’s A16 Bionic.

The A17 Pro was announced in September of 2023 and it has made its debut on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Apple A17 Pro

Apple A17 Pro Specs

  • CPU Cores:
  • 2 Performance cores (3.70GHz)
  • 4 Efficiency cores (2.02GHz)
  • GPU: Apple GPU (6-core)
  • ISA: ARMv9 (??)
  • Manufacturing: 3nm TSMC
  • RAM: LPDDR5 (3200MHz)
  • Storage: NVMe
  • ISP: Apple ISP + Deep Fusion
  • AI Processor: Neural Engine (16-core)
  • Camera Support: 48MP (??)
  • Video: 4K HDR @60fps
  • Display: QHD (1440p) @120Hz with HDR10+
  • Modem: 5G, 4G (Cat. 25), Bluetooth 5.3, WiFi 6

Performance of the Apple A17 Pro

The Apple A17 Pro is no ordinary flagship. It is designed to be the world’s best. In typical Apple fashion, it is a hexa (6) core SoC with 2 high-performance cores for intensive apps, games, etc., and 4 efficiency cores for low-powered tasks and battery efficiency.

This SoC has a GeekBench score of 2078/5905. This is better than the 1861/5354 scored by its successor, the A16 Bionic. Whilst the A17 Pro is an improvement over its predecessor, the gains are rather minimal.

This notwithstanding, it is currently the best-performing SoC in the world, according to Geekbench.

A17 Pro GPU gaming performance

Apple A17 Pro Console Gaming Capability

Gaming is the one area that Apple hasn’t traditionally bossed the competition. This may change with the new Apple Bionic GPU (6-core). The GPU on this SoC has hardware ray tracing and has enough power to natively run AAA games like Resident Evil 4 and Assassin’s Creed.

Storage and RAM

The A17 Pro has support for LPDDR5 RAM and NVMe storage. The LPDDR5 may not be as fast as the LPDDR5x but it is still crazy fast in its own right.

On the storage side of things, Apple has always been tight-lipped on their NVMe storage but the takeaway is that it is flagship quality.

Camera and Video

The A17 Pro clearly supports 48MP cameras. It could be more but Apple does not seem keen to share that information with the public. For video, the A17 Pro is capable of handling 4K HDR video at 60fps. It can also support video modes such as ProRes, ProRAW, and Cinematic mode, all of which make the iPhone a videography powerhouse.

Connectivity

This SoC is equipped with a 5G modem which is also 4G (LTE Cat. 25) capable. It has peak download speeds of 7500Mbps and upload speeds of 3500Mbps. There is also support for Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6.

Battery life

The A17 Pro is the first SoC in the world to be built on TSMC’s cutting-edge 3nm process. This should guarantee that the A17 Pro runs cool, is efficient, and stays battery-friendly.

Conclusion

Every year, Apple’s lead over the rest of the industry becomes shorter and shorter. However, the A17 Pro should extend Apple’s lead on the top of the log for a little longer.

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