The iPhone 18e May Feature an A20 Chip — And Not Much Else
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If you were hoping that next spring’s iPhone 18e would be a substantial upgrade for the budget model, we may have some bad news. A new report from an oft-reliable leaker is suggesting that the most exciting thing about the 2027 e-series model will be the silicon.
That shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise; this is Apple’s budget model, after all. Even after Apple bumped the iPhone 17 to a 120 Hz ProMotion display last year, it’s fair to say that expecting anything more than a basic fixed-rate 60 Hz display on the iPhone 18e would be asking too much.
There have only been two models in the new entry-level lineup so far, which replaced the infrequently updated iPhone SE family with something that at least falls into line with the mainstream iPhone model years. That puts them on an annual cycle, which means they’re likely to be even more iterative updates. After all, there’s only so much that Apple is willing to do with a $699 iPhone — even with that $100 price hike from last month folded in.
The iPhone 17e that arrived in March was already a much lesser upgrade over the original iPhone 16e than many expected. Despite highly plausible rumors that Apple would adopt a Dynamic Island to match every other iPhone it released that year, it stuck with the legacy notch that already felt like a bit of an anachronism when it showed up on the iPhone 16e in early 2025.
Instead, Apple bumped it to the A19 chip of the iPhone 17 and added the MagSafe charging that was inexplicably missing from its predecessor (which was limited to Apple’s old-school 7.5W Qi charging speeds).
Now, it looks like the iPhone 18e will deliver more of the same. In a new post on Weibo, leaker Digital Chat Station is predicting a 6.12-inch 60 Hz LTPS OLED and a single 48 MP camera, with the only glimmer of hope being the possibility of the front camera getting a bump to 24 MP.
If that guess of a 24 MP camera is accurate, it’s most likely referring to the 18 MP Center Stage front camera that Apple adopted with the rest of the iPhone 17 lineup, but skipped for the iPhone 17e.
That camera system uses a 24 MP square sensor to allow it to capture photos in both landscape and portrait without reorienting the iPhone, but since those are cropped to a standard 4:3 aspect ratio, they only produce 18 MP photos. Many supply chain leakers understandably made a similar error with predictions for the iPhone 18 lineup, as their information is based almost entirely on physical components.
Digital Chat Station also points to an A20 chip, but it’s fair to say that’s a given. There’s no way the budget model is getting the A20 Pro, and Apple isn’t about to bump it ahead to an A21, so there’s nowhere else for it to go.
It’s unclear how much RAM this A20 will pack in, but most believe Apple will bump it above the 8 GB of the A19 chip found in the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17e to meet the demands of Siri AI and Apple Intelligence. All other recent iPhone models use an A19 Pro or A20 Pro, which both feature 12 GB of RAM, but rumors are divided on whether the A20 will go all the way to 12 GB or split the difference with something like 9 GB.
This latest leak doesn’t rule out the possibility that Apple will adopt the Dynamic Island in the next model. So far, the iPhone 16e and iPhone 17e have both used the displays from the iPhone 14 era — hence the notch — but the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 also sported 6.1-inch OLED LTPS displays with a Dynamic Island, and it’s entirely possible Apple could use those for the iPhone 18e.
Either way, while everything here sounds pretty plausible, we’re still likely three to four months away from the debut of the iPhone 18e, which will likely happen alongside the iPhone 18 and possibly even a next-generation “iPhone Air 2.” As usual, early leaks like these should be taken with a grain of salt, especially when there’s been little to corroborate them.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
