iPhone 16 "built for" Apple Intelligence?

It might just be happy coincidence that the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max have the hardware to run Apple Intelligence; that the iPhone 16 series phones are not the only phones in line to receive it. With high-tech products such as iPhones, development starts long before products ship. We don't know how far along Apple Intelligence was at the time that Apple was designing the 15 series phones – or whether it even factored into the hardware requirements and design at all. Maybe it didn't factor into hardware decisions much, if at all.

Maybe the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max got newer processors and more RAM than the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus just to differentiate the more expensive phones in other ways. Then when Apple Intelligence was further along, it turned out that the newer processors and extra RAM would be useful for it, too.

Other than Apple's claim that the 16 series phones are "the first iPhone[s] built for Apple Intelligence", we have no official statement from Apple, one way or the other.

We are all users here on this user to user only forum. I certainly can't highlight the differences which Apple engineered into the newer models to make them more ready for AI. But surely they did. Whether you will notice the difference on a 15 pro or not, likely won't be known until people actually have the new phones in their hands and can run things side by side. Stay tuned........

Keep in mind that many of the people who might be in the market for a new iPhone do not have an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Apple still sells the SE (3rd generation), 14, 14 Plus, 15, and 15 Plus. For some people, the fact that those phones aren't on the list to get Apple Intelligence – while all of the 16 series phones are – might be one reason to choose one of the 16 series phones.

Like any other manufacturer who sells a range of products, Apple is going to mention the features of higher-end products to see how many sales they can get as possible for the higher-end ones.

Philip Fass1 wrote:

I assume that "built for" is marketing speak to encourage upgrades from the 15 Pro, which can also run AI. I guess the older phone runs it a bit slower, but maybe not enough to notice?

?

Apple has a website if you are in doubt...

ref: https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/?modelList=iphone-14,iphone-15,iphone-16

From Apple

An upgraded 16-core Neural Engine is optimized for large generative models and runs ML models up to 2x faster than the A16 Bionic chip.

Apple introduces iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus - Apple

You assume incorrectly.

The A18 chipset contains a chip specifically designed for machine learning.

From Tech specs:

• A18 Pro chip
• New 6‑core CPU with 2 performance and 4 efficiency cores
• New 6‑core GPU
• New 16‑core Neural Engine

The 15 pro with A17 chip also has a 16 core neural engine. Guess “rebuilt from the ground up” just means the same number of cores just a bit faster