iPhone 15 to Feature 'Aggressively Upgraded' UWB Chip for Better Apple Vision Pro Integration: Ming-Chi Kuo

iPhone 15 — the purported successor to the iPhone 14 series of smartphones — is expected to be unveiled later this year. This year, Apple is rumoured to introduce notable hardware changes such as the inclusion of a USB Type-C charging port and faster wireless charging without MagSafe. Now, a market analyst has claimed that Apple will equip its next-generation iPhone models with a new version of its ultra-wideband chip that could help if integrate better with the Apple Vision Pro, the company's first mixed reality headset that was unveiled at WWDC 2023.

TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo shared a Twitter post on Monday claiming that the company will "aggressively upgrade" the hardware specifications of its other products after it unveiled the Apple Vision Pro at its annual developer conference. Calling Apple's product ecosystem one of the key factors for the headset's success, Kuo says that Apple is looking to upgrade Wi-Fi and ultra-wideband connectivity, two specifications that are responsible for the phone integrating with the Vision Pro.

According to Kuo, Apple is likely to equip the iPhone 15 series with an upgraded 7nm UWB chip, which will be a considerable upgrade from the 16nm U1 chip that Apple has been using since the iPhone 11 to offer features like Handoff, AirTag tracking with Find My, and AirDrop.

The new chip will offer better performance while cutting down on power consumption when the device is interacting with other devices in the vicinity, according to Kuo, who claims that the upgraded UWB chip will be manufactured by China's Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology (JCET), one of Apple's back-end SiP suppliers.

While there are still a few months before Apple is expected to unveil the successor to the iPhone 14 series, Kuo has also leaked details of the iPhone 16 series. The analyst claims that the iPhone 16 series will feature support for Wi-Fi 7 connectivity, which will allow the phones to offer better performance — such as ultra-high speeds and lower latency — while connecting to other Apple devices on the same local network.

According to earlier reports, the iPhone 15 series of smartphones will be equipped with 48-megapixel cameras this year, a significant upgrade for last year's non-Pro models — the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus. The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus are expected to be powered by the company's A16 Bionic chip found on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, while the Pro models could be equipped with the next-generation A17 Bionic chip.