It may seem strange to say it so soon after the launch of the iPhone 15, but the iPhone 16 is coming later this calendar year – and we’ve already seen a few leaks surrounding the 2024 flagships. The latest rumor to reach us teases both good and bad news about the internal storage on these phones.
According to sources spoken to DigiTimes (through AppleInsiderApple is one of the few smartphone makers considering moving to Quad-Level Cell (QLC) NAND flash memory modules in larger 1TB capacity handsets.
If you’re not familiar with QLC, or the Triple-Level Cell (TLC) memory currently used by Apple, don’t worry: QLC actually stores four bits of data per memory cell, instead of three. That means more capacity with the same number of cells, or the same amount of capacity with fewer cells.
We’ll start with the good news: QLC may mean that the 1TB iPhone 16 won’t be as expensive for Apple to make, and the savings may be passed on to the user. In theory, it could also mean that there is more room for other components in the iPhone 16 to expand, such as a larger capacity battery.
And now the bad news
However, this move to QLC wouldn’t necessarily be all good news, even if the lower production costs are attractive to phone makers. QLC flash memory is less reliable than the TLC equivalent, and as a result, iPhone 16 storage write speeds may be slower than iPhone 15.
Since we’re not privy to Apple’s engineering labs, this is all speculation, but that’s the nature of leaks and rumors. It’s worth keeping in mind as the expected September 2024 launch date approaches.
One substantial upgrade we’ve heard about with the iPhone 16 is that more RAM is on the way for the Standard and Plus handsets – something that should improve performance, especially when multitasking. At the same time, the Pro models are also expected to get a boost to 5G speeds.
As for the physical design of the iPhone 16, it appears that Apple can’t make up its mind on whether or not to tweak the Action button that was introduced on last year’s models. There are also rumors of a new Capture button on the other side.