It’s looking likely we’ll see the official iPhone 7 launch within a month or so, and although pretty much everything that could leak seems to have done just that, there’s always something left to reveal.
And today has brought us new spy shots, not of any dummy cases or missing headphone jacks, but of the new A10 processor which is expected to power the upcoming handset.
The images themselves were posted to social media site Weibo by Chinese repair shop GeekBar, and appear to show incomplete A10 chips, displaying what could be the RAM layer of the overall system-on-a-chip.
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There’s not much to salivate over in these latest photos, with the processor looking much as you’d expect a processor to look. But it does bode well for the iPhone 7’s potential performance boost.
The iPhone 6S and iPhone SE use Apple’s A9 processor, with the company introducing an upgraded A9X chip for its iPad Pro range last November.
But many are expecting to see a fully upgraded chip when Apple launches the iPhone 7 – widely thought to be landing in early September.
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What’s more, it has previously been reported that Apple has chosen to use TSMC as the sole supplier of the new chips, instead of using both TSMC and Samsung, as it has with previous processor production.
With numerous reports suggesting Apple plans to introduce minimal design changes on the iPhone 7, many will be looking for a significant performance boost to justify upgrading – something which these latest spy shots seem to point towards.
Of course, there’s no way to verify the images, but, as MacRumours notes, the number of pins shown on the chips seem to match the A9 chip’s 64-bit LPDDR4 interface.
And while GeekBar has been accurate with pre-release details in the past, we’ll have to wait until next month for final confirmation of the A10’s existence.
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Let us know what you think of these latest shots in the comments.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.