In the new beta of tvOS, there are two mysterious new iPhones in addition to the four iPhone 15 models. iPhoned makes a guess what kind of models they are.
iPhone identifiers
It will only be a month before the iPhone 15 will be presented. So it should be clear that Apple is already busy with these four models, the iPhone 15, 15 Plus, 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max. Just like in recent years, these are now appearing in the beta versions of iOS 17, iPadOS 17 and macOS Sonoma. They have some weird names there. This is what the aforementioned iPhones are called:
- iPhone15.4
- iPhone15.5
- iPhone16.1
- iPhone16.2
There isn’t a completely clear logic to the numbering, but we’re pretty sure the first number after “iPhone” represents the Generation A chip it contains. In this way, it can already be concluded that the iPhone 15 (Plus) will have the same chip as the current iPhone 14 Pro (Max), because the number ’15’ stands for the A16 Bionic. At the same time, the iPhone 15 Pro (Max) will receive a completely new chip: the A17 Bionic. But there’s more.
Two mysterious iPhones
Someone has also dived into the code of the latest beta of tvOS (you know, the Apple TV). They found the same iPhone 15 models there, but also the following iPhone identification codes:
- iPhone14.1
- iPhone14.9
Have you also found out which chip is in this? Right, it’s about the A15 Bionic, so the chip that we know from the iPhone 13 series and the 14 (Plus). Now it’s not unusual to find old models in the code that just never materialized, but there are some interesting theories surrounding these two models.
Theories surrounding these iPhones
According to one theory, Apple may be planning to give the current iPhone SE and the iPhone 13 or iPhone 14 a minor update in the form of a USB-C connection. That could happen if Apple doesn’t want any iPhones with Lightning to be sold in the Store. In theory, Apple could also choose two other models (possibly even the iPhone 13 mini), but the three mentioned seem the most plausible to us.
Some wilder speculation is about models that should not appear until spring 2024. In that case, it could be about a completely new iPhone SE 4. We’ve been hearing rumors about that for a while, and it may be next spring. A side note is that a new iPhone SE always gets the latest iPhone chip, so this second theory is not completely waterproof.
Maybe it’s also really simple and Apple just built some iPhone prototypes that were used purely for testing purposes and never hit the shelves. The least exciting theory, but perhaps the most likely. What do you think, what kind of iPhones would this be?
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