Apple Watch Series 5 Chip, iPhone 11 RAM Details Revealed in Xcode

Apple Watch Series 5 Credit: TechCrunch / Brian Heater
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Apple doesn’t give too many details about what goes on under-the-hood of its devices. The confusion surrounding the RAM of this year’s iPhone lineup is one example. But Apple’s Xcode development environment has confirmed some of the internal specifications of several of this year’s devices, as spotted by developer Steve Troughton-Smith.

iPhone and iPad RAM

Troughton-Smith confirmed via Xcode this morning that all three iPhone models this year — including the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max — have 4GB of RAM.

There’s been some mixed information about iPhone RAM this year, with some reports indicating that the iPhone 11 Pro models would actually have 6GB of memory.

That doesn’t seem to be the case, per Troughton-Smith’s new information, a Chinese regulatory filing this week, and what appeared to be early benchmarks for Apple’s A13 Bionic published on Geekbench last week.

That means that the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max have the same amount of RAM as their iPhone XS counterparts. On the flip side, the iPhone 11 now has 1GB more RAM than its iPhone XR predecessor.

Troughton-Smith’s Xcode sleuthing also revealed that this year’s 10.2-inch entry-level iPad comes equipped with 3GB of RAM. That’s a 1GB bump up from last year’s 9.7-inch iPad.

While the iPhone’s RAM statistics will likely draw some fire from certain smartphone fans, it’s worth noting that Apple devices have always been able to do more with less RAM. Even with 4GB, this year’s iPhones are still the fastest smartphones on the market.

Apple Watch S5 Chip

The developer’s Xcode digging also revealed a few interesting tidbits about this year’s incremental Apple Watch Series 5 update.

For one, the Series 5 now includes 32GB of storage. It also has an updated display, obviously to allow for the always-on display functionality that’s pretty much the marquee feature of the generation.

Troughton-Smith also noted that the S5 processor is basically identical to the Apple Watch Series 4’s S4 processor.

Apple didn’t mention any processor or speed improvements when it announced the Apple Watch Series 5, so that was pretty much expected. But it’s interesting because of the moniker change. If the chip is identical, Apple could have simply called it an S4. That leaves a few possibilities.

Apple could simply name the wearable processor after the Apple Watch generation that it comes in. Alternatively, the new S5 designation could simply be Apple’s name for the S4 chip with additional support for the new gyroscope and compass feature, as well as the 32GB of NAND.

In any case, the Series 5’s use of the older chip means that Apple Watch Series 4 owners will get pretty much identical performance from watchOS 6.

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