In February 2025, Apple officially killed off the cheap iPhone SE line to switch to the "e" suffix generation, starting with the iPhone 16e and followed by the iPhone 17e.
Compared to the standard iPhone 17, the 17e version undergoes many cuts to optimize the price: a compact 6.1-inch screen with a lower scanning frequency, the absence of Dynamic Island and the Camera Control button and only one camera on the back. Although both are equipped with an A19 chip, the iPhone 17e is still reduced in one GPU core.
However, this rule may completely change on the iPhone 18 generation.
According to leaked sources from the Fixed Focus Digital account on the Weibo platform, Apple is planning to "downgrade" the processing hardware of the standard iPhone 18, making it exactly the same as the chip equipped on the iPhone 18e.
In essence, both devices will have the same number of graphics processing units (GPUs), because Apple decided to eliminate chip binning in this generation. Accordingly, this is an extremely strong production cost reduction measure.
In fact, this means that the performance between iPhone 18 and iPhone 18e will be almost equivalent. However, to ensure the appeal of the standard version, Apple will still retain core technology features such as the ProMotion high-frequency scanning screen, Camera Control button or Dynamic Island as exclusive sales highlights for iPhone 18.
Using the same processor for two low-end models seems to be a wise move to widen the gap with the Pro line. By equalizing the power in the lower segment, the performance of iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max will become superior and much more valuable.
This approach proves to be extremely reasonable, especially when rumors show that iPhone 18 Pro (launched in 2026) will not have many breakthroughs except for processing power. The most noticeable changes are expected to be limited to new color options and the Dynamic Island cluster is slightly reduced.
In addition, reports also indicate that the standard iPhone 18 version may not be launched in the fall but will be postponed to the spring of 2027 to be launched at the same time as the iPhone 18e. This schedule further reinforces the authenticity of sharing the same chip configuration.
